Hyundai Triumphs Again At Nurburgring TCR Class After Chaos
2026 n rburgring 24 hours 03
Hyundai Motorsport did it again at the Nurburgring 24 Hours, claiming the TCR class for a sixth straight year with the i30 Sedan N TCR. It was not a celebratory cruise though. The car and crew survived collisions, an hour long power steering repair, rain and the usual Nordschleife carnage to snatch victory in the final hour.
Starting strong from class pole, the race turned nasty early when contact on the Grand Prix track and a later power steering failure dumped the team deep in the order. The repairs cost more than an hour and left the car multiple laps down and languishing near the back of the vast field.
Late Charge, Fastest Laps And A Wet Finale
Back on the track, the drivers methodically carved through traffic to retake the class lead shortly after midnight and then rebuilt a cushion. Mechanical gremlins did not spare the squad. A second extended stop during the night forced another comeback, with the final stint delivering the crucial overtake with under an hour to go. The chasing driver also posted the car’s fastest lap of the race, an 8:50.666, on the way to sealing the win.
Rain returned for the closing stages and trimmed the margin for error. With wet corners and slick tyres to worry about, the team managed pace and nerves to finish 125 laps, placing 69th overall and a lap clear of the nearest TCR rival. The reward was another notch on Hyundai’s Nordschleife belt.
Development Work In The Background
Meanwhile, two i30 Sedan N1 RP cars fitted with development engines ran in SP4T, completing 91 and 90 laps despite their own mechanical dramas. Those runs were not vanity laps. Every failure and repair yielded data for engineers and will feed into the next generation of engines and road cars.
Call it hard earned or downright heroic. Either way, the result is simple: the i30 Sedan N TCR remains very good at the Ring, and the team proved once more that resilience and quick thinking beat bad luck more often than not.
Zachary Skinner is the editor of TechDrivePlay.com, where tech, cars and adventure share the fast lane.
A former snowboarding pro and programmer, he brings both creative flair and technical know-how to his reviews. From high-performance cars to clever gadgets, he explores how innovation shapes the way we move, connect and live.
