Alex Morgan took a lights-to-flag victory in the second TCR Europe Series race at Oschersleben this afternoon, despite having Tom Coronel on his bumper all race long.
Morgan was quick off of the line, but his front row partner Josh Files didn’t get the best of starts and dropped behind Tom Coronel into third. With new team-mate Dominik Baumann acting as a rear gunner, Files was lucky not to have a more attack-minded car behind him, else the damage done could’ve been far worse.
On the exit of Hasseroder, contact forced Gianni Morbidelli and Luca Filippi off onto the grass in the midfield. Compared to the previous race however, everyone had got away from the start largely unscathed.
At the front though, Tom Coronel could sniff a potential race victory, so was all over the back of Morgan’s Cupra from the get-go.
Nelson Panciatici, meanwhile, had found a way past Gilles Magnus at the Ammen-Kurve, which then allowed Luca Engstler and Daniel Lloyd to follow through too.
With fifteen minutes to go, Maxime Potty was the first major casualty of the race after contact with Mat’o Homola on the exit of turn ten left him temporarily sidelined up against the wall. Homola’s car was also hobbled and dropped out of contention further around the lap.
A lap or two later, Daniel Lloyd’s Honda bowed out of the race after a clear mechanical failure had forced him to pull off, with smoke billowing from the car. Lloyd had been running in the top ten and was on course for more points after scoring his first victory in the previous race.
Gianni Morbidelli then joined the list of retirees after his front-right tyre let go in spectacular fashion at turn six.
Julien Briche stood second in the points standings heading into this race, but with his Peugeot having been hampered by Balance of Performance measures, points had become hard to come by in recent races. Circulating in sixteenth place with just a couple of laps to go, Briche seized on an opportunity at Hasseroder curve to get into that all-important top fifteen. Having squeezed past Jimmy Clairet, Briche was then gifted another place as Davit Kajaia suddenly dropped out with a mechanical fault.
At the front though, Tom Coronel never really launched a meaningful attack on Alex Morgan, and so the Welshman went on to take the first race victory of his TCR Europe Series career.
Josh Files completed the podium, and in doing so picked up yet another barrel of points to extend his healthy championship lead. The margin now is a whopping 78 points to Luca Engstler in second place.
Race Result – Top 15:
| Position | Driver | Car |
| 1st | Alex Morgan | Cupra |
| 2nd | Tom Coronel | Honda |
| 3rd | Josh Files | Hyundai |
| 4th | Dominik Baumann | Hyundai |
| 5th | Santiago Urrutia | Audi |
| 6th | Jessica Backman | Hyundai |
| 7th | Luca Engstler | Hyundai |
| 8th | Nelson Panciatici | Hyundai |
| 9th | Andreas Backman | Hyundai |
| 10th | Gilles Magnus | Audi |
| 11th | Luca Filippi | Hyundai |
| 12th | Natan Bihel | Hyundai |
| 13th | Aurelien Comte | Peugeot |
| 14th | Julien Briche | Peugeot |
| 15th | Jimmy Clairet | Peugeot |
