A series of incidents and changeable weather conditions reduced the first race of TCR Germany at Zandvoort to only a couple of racing laps amid the safety car interventions.
The first incident happened at the start, when Moritz Oestreich’s Honda, Jasmine Preisig’s Opel and Florian Thoma’s Volkswagen crashed into each other prompting the red flag.
While the wrecked cars were retrieved, the rain came and many drivers decided to switch to wet tyres. However, when the race resumed behind the safety car, the rain had stopped and the track was dry. Those who had chosen to stay on slicks moved up through the field: Niels Langeveld took the lead from Mike Halder, while Jason Wolfe, Rik Breukers and Alex Morgan climbed back to third, fourth and fifth respectively, ahead of Josh Files. A few moments later Kris Richard crashed and the safety car was deployed once again.
After the restart Tom Lautenschlager made contact with Luca Engstler and Steve Kirsch, ending up against the barrier. The safety car was deployed for the third time.
The race resumed with only two laps to go and under a pouring rain. Langeveld managed to create a margin and claimed his second consecutive victory, while Wolfe won the sprint for second from Breukers and Files.
Files has further stretched his margin in the standings to 104 points.
The second race will start tomorrow at 12:00 (live streaming on www.tcr-series.tv).