Martin Andersen (Hyundai Team Engstler) makes his ambitions for the runner-up championship clear in the ADAC TCR Germany behind his German team-mate Luca Engstler, who is already established as champion. The 27-year-old Dane won the first race of the hotly contested touring car series at the season finale at the Nürburgring and improved to second place in the overall standings.
After 20 laps, Andersen crossed the finish line with a clear lead of 13 seconds over second-placed Marcel Fugel (Honda ADAC Sachsen) and celebrated his first success in the series. Third, the Austrian Nico Gruber, who is already the winner of the Honda Junior classification and also competes for Hyundai Team Engstler, crossed the finish line in his Hyundai i30 N TCR.
“The race was sensational. It was my first win in the series. The 25 points are very important, especially in this race where my two opponents were a bit further down. This is a great result for the drivers’ standings, ”said Andersen happily. “Tomorrow we will try to repeat today’s result. The car is great and the track suits me better and better. The fight for second place is very close, but we will give everything to win this fight. “
Andersen’s toughest rivals for second place in the drivers’ standings, however, stood in their own way on Saturday. In lap two there was a collision between Dominik Fugel (Honda ADAC Sachsen) in a Honda and the Italian Eric Scalvini in a Cupra Leon Competition of the Wimmer Werk Motorsport team. Scalvini spun on the contact and fell back to the end of the field. The Italian was unable to recover from this incident and finally finished the race in eleventh place. The race management gave Fugel a drive-through penalty for the “foul”. The Saxon also fell far behind, but then showed a courageous race to catch up and fought his way up to fourth place until the end of the race.
The start of the penultimate race of the 2021 season was orderly: Marcel Fugel got off very well, but Andersen was able to convert his pole position into the lead. As the race progressed, the Dane increased his lead with every lap and drove confidently to victory.
Marcel Fugel achieved his best result of the season with second place.
The most exciting fight in the field was shown by Marcel Fugel and Nico Gruber. Both drivers fought a breathtaking duel for second place over several laps. Marcel Fugel was able to repel all attacks by the Hyundai driver and defend his place. Second place for the Saxon is his best result of the season so far.
“Thanks to qualifying, we had a good starting position and had hoped to take first place at the start. Unfortunately this did not work. Then defending second place was a big deal and we are super happy with the result, “emphasized Marcel Fugel after the race:” Tomorrow we will start from P1. If we get off to a good start, it could be a good day. “
The final race of the ADAC TCR Germany in the 2021 season will take place on Sunday at 10.45 a.m. The race can be seen live on adac.de/motorsport and on RTL + (rtlplus.com).
ADAC TCR Germany: Result Saturday race
1. Martin Andersen (Hyundai) 2. Marcel Fugel (Honda) 3. Nico Gruber (Hyundai) 4. Dominik Fugel (Honda) 5th Robin year (Hyundai) 6. Patrick Sing (Hyundai) 7. Jonas Karklys (Hyundai) 8. Szymon Ladniak (Honda) 9. Roland Hertner (Hyundai) 10. Albert Legutko (Honda)
