The TCR Europe series resumes at Hockenheim for its second event, one month after the season opener at the Hungaroring.
A strong field of 32 cars will race on the German track, as Tom Coronel, Daniel Lloyd, Stian Paulsen and Tamás Tenke make their first appearance in the championship.
Coronel will race the Boutsen Ginion Racing Honda Civic after he was replaced by Stéphane Lémeret at the Hungaoring while racing in the WTCR; reigning TCR UK champion Lloyd will join Martin Ryba at Brutal Fish Racing Team, driving the second Honda Civic Type R car entered by the Slovak outfit; Paulsen returns to the series at the wheel of a CUPRA run by its own team; another CUPRA is fielded by Hungary-based Zengő Motorsport for Tenke.
The TCR Europe lands in Germany with six drivers covered by five points of top of the standings. Surprisingly the first two have not won any of the races in Hungary. Gilles Magnus (Comtoyou Racing Audi RS 3 LMS) and Nelson Panciatici (M Racing Hyundai i30 N) capitalised on their results to collect 57 points apiece. Mat’o Homola (Target Competition Hyundai) won the first race and is now placed third with 54 points; two other Hyundai drivers, Dániel Nagy (M1RA Motorsport) and Dušan Borković (Target Competition) are joint in fourth position with 54 points, while Josh Files (Target Competition Hyundai) lies sixth, a further two points adrift.
The winner of the Hungaroring Race 2, Julien Briché (JSB Compétition Peugeot 308), stands in seventh place, 17 points from the leader, as he was stripped of a fourth place in Race 1 after his car was found underweight.
One of the main contenders for race wins at Hockenheim will be Nagy's teammate Luca Engstler, last year's vice-champion in the ADAC TCR Germany, who is - together with Files who won there in 2016 and 2017 - one of the best connoisseurs of the track among the TCR Europe competitors.
The application of the Compensation Weight means that the Hyundai cars continue carrying 60 kilos, while the extra weight of all the others cars has been reduced to 30kg.
Both races will be streamed live at www.tcr-series.com and www.tcr-series.tv, Race 1 Saturday at 14:40 and Race Sunday at 11:35.