Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk claimed victory in the second TCR World Tour / TCR Europe race at the Hungaroring, as a first-lap incident eliminated the hopes of home hero Norbert Michelisz.
Dušan Borković had started from pole position for the partially reversed-grid race, but the Target Competition driver lost out when the lights went out to the fast-starting Lynk & Co of Björk.
Second going into the first corner, Borković then found his Hyundai being turned around by Stantiago Urrutia’s Lynk & Co, spinning the Serb into the path of Michelisz.
The contact between Borković and Michelisz tapped the latter into a spin, and the BRC Racing driver was unavoidably clipped by the Comtoyou Audi of Viktor Davidovski, who was turned into the path of Levente Losonczy before hitting the barriers hard.
With Davidovski’s car stranded on the track, the safety car had to be called upon, whilst Michelisz and Losonczy limped back to the pitlane.
After three laps behind the safety car, racing resumed on lap five, with Björk making a strong restart ahead of Comtoyou’s Frédéric Vervisch, who had settled into second at the start.
Lap six saw Urrutia handed a drive-through penalty for the contact with Borković at the start, dropping the Uruguayan out of contention when he served the penalty at the end of the lap.
Huff, meanwhile, had gained seven places on the opening tour, including two off the line and a further four with a svelte wide line at the first corner, before jumping three places on lap five when he cutback on Mikel Azcona at the first corner and immediately passed Urrutia at the next turn.
Vervisch allowed Huff past later on in the lap, leaving the Brit in second, albeit nearly two seconds behind Björk. Thereafter, the closest he got to the leading Swede was 1.3 seconds, the Audi driver unable to close in on the leading Lynk & Co before the chequered flag.
Vervisch held on to complete the podium in third, although the Belgian had to withstand heavy late-race pressure from BRC Racing’s Azcona, who was fourth, and ALM Motorsport’s Néstor Girolami in fifth.
Race one winner Yann Ehrlacher brought his Cyan Lynk & Co home in sixth, ahead of the leading TCR Europe entrant of Kobe Pauwels in seventh.
Ma Qing Hua passed Comtoyou’s Tom Coronel for ninth on the penultimate lap, which would become eighth when MA:GP’s Viktor Andersson, who had finished in eighth on the road, was handed a five-second time penalty.
Coronel was ninth, with ALM’s Ruben Volt thus completing the top ten and scoring the first-ever top ten finish for an Estonian driver in World Touring Cars.
Aggressive Team Italia’s Kevin Ceccon had run as high as ninth but ultimately finished in 11th after being passed by Ma, Coronel and Volt late in the race.
Borković recovered to finish in 12th in his Hyundai, ahead of the penalised Andersson in 13th. After his penalty, Urrutia was down in 16th, whilst Michelisz circulated at the back of the field, four laps down, to record a finish in his damaged Hyundai.
In the TCR World Tour standings, Ehrlacher now leads on his own with 195 points, ahead of Michelisz (179), Azcona (168), Huff (161) and Girolami (150).
Race results
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP | GD |
| 1 | 111 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 15 | 31:58.820 | 1:54.793 | 2 | |
| 2 | 179 |  |
Rob HUFF | Audi Sport Team Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 15 | 1.536 | 1:55.094 | 12 | |
| 3 | 122 |  |
Frédéric VERVISCH | Audi Sport Team Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 15 | 7.683 | 1:55.579 | 3 | |
| 4 | 196 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 15 | 7.959 | 1:54.600 | 7 | |
| 5 | 129 |  |
Néstor GIROLAMI | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 15 | 8.560 | 1:55.017 | 9 | |
| 6 | 168 |  |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 15 | 8.768 | 1:55.074 | 10 | |
| 7 | 22 |  |
Kobe PAUWELS | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 15 | 13.521 | 1:56.108 | 14 | |
| 8 | 155 |  |
MA Qing Hua | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 15 | 17.790 | 1:55.579 | 8 | |
| 9 | 34 | |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 15 | 18.599 | 1:56.318 | 13 | |
| 10 | 127 |  |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 15 | 18.965 | 1:55.843 | 11 | |
| 11 | 31 |  |
Kevin CECCON | Aggressive Team Italia | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 15 | 21.448 | 1:56.442 | 15 | |
| 12 | 62 |  |
Dušan BORKOVIĆ | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 15 | 21.994 | 1:55.913 | 1 | |
| 13 | 10 | |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 15 | 22.586 | 1:56.297 | 4 | |
| 14 | 27 | |
John FILIPPI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 15 | 26.318 | 1:57.018 | 16 | |
| 15 | 48 | |
Mikael KARLSSON | Aggressive Team Italia | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 15 | 26.848 | 1:56.786 | 19 | |
| 16 | 112 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 15 | 28.032 | 1:55.569 | 5 | |
| 17 | 39 | |
Lewis BROWN | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 15 | 33.376 | 1:57.209 | 20 | |
| 18 | 7 |  |
Daniel TKACHENKO | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 15 | 40.259 | 1:57.030 | 21 | |
| 19 | 105 |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 11 | + 4 LAPS | 1:57.585 | 6 | |
| R | 264 | |
Levente LOSONCZY | Aggressive Team Italia | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 1 | DNF | 2:37.034 | 18 | |
| R | 11 |  |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 0 | DNF | N/A | 17 |