TCR World and life

14 GERMANY Andthewinner is: MaxHesse ! A PENALTY DEPRIVES BURI OF RACE VICTORY AND THE TITLE Max Hesse secured the 2019 TCR Germany title at the end of a breathtaking second race at the Sachsenring that ended with the title contenders in a door-to-door battle on the last lap. After Saturday's Race 1, Hesse's lead in the standings had been reduced to three points over both Harald Proczyk and Antti Buri. In the final sprint, Buri was the first to cross the finishing line with a margin of 11 thousandths over Hesse: a victory that would have given him the title on equal points with Hesse, but with four victories against three. However, the Finn was given a one second time penalty for a collision with Proczyk at the beginning of the last lap and so dropped to third in the race and in the standings, 12 points behind Hesse and five behind Proczyk. And so, 18-year old Hesse became the first German champion of the series and also the youngest. At the same time, Michelle Halder was crowned champion in the Junior Trophy. RACE 1 – A MAIDEN WIN FOR DOMINIK FUGEL At the start, Dominik Fugel sprinted from pole position into the lead, while Buri, who was third on the grid, muscled his way past Mike Halder to take P2. With Harald Proczyk in fourth position, Max Hesse moved into fifth after passing Marcel Fugel – after they made contact a couple of times – and Théo Coicaud. After a safety car intervention, from lap 8 to lap 10 to recover Mitchell Cheah’s car from the gravel trap at T10, Fugel and Buri pulled away from the rest of the field, while Mike Halder and Proczyk were holding onto their third and fourth positions. Behind them it was drama for Hesse, whose pace faded over the last couple of laps and so he dropped from fifth to eighth behind Michelle Halder and Pascal Eberle. On the final lap, Buri was chasing Fugel very closely, but couldn’t find a gap to pass; Fugel then took his maiden win of the season with a five-tenths margin over Buri.