Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher scored a lights-to-flag win in the opening TCR World Tour / TCR Europe race at the Hungaroring, seeing off an early challenge from ALM Motorsport’s Néstor Girolami.
At the start, Ehrlacher had to move quickly to defend away from the line from Argentine Girolami, and going into the first corner the Frenchman went deep, which in turn forced Girolami slightly wide and opened the door for Cyan team-mate Ma Qing Hua to challenge.
That meant Ma was able to briefly move into second at Turn 4, although the Chinese racer would only hold the place for a lap and a half before Girolami boldly reclaimed the place at the penultimate corner on the following lap.
In the process, BRC Racing’s Mikel Azcona went around the outside of Ma to take third at the final corner.
By this stage, Ehrlacher had been able to open up a lead of over two seconds, and the two-time FIA WTCR champion would hold the place to the chequered flag, as the podium positions were decided by this stage, with Girolami scoring a second podium of the year ahead of Azcona.
Ma held on to finish in fourth, ahead of the leading Audi of Comtoyou Racing’s Frédéric Vervisch in fifth, the Belgian having gained three places at the start before settling into the position for the remainder of the race.
The second BRC Hyundai of Norbert Michelisz dropped two places to seventh on the opening lap, but the Hungarian was able to fight back past Santiago Urrutia’s Lynk & Co on the next lap to secure sixth.
Urrutia was seventh, ahead of Cyan team-mate Thed Björk in eighth, the latter having gained three places from the line but none thereafter.
The top ten was completed by Comtoyou Racing duo Rob Huff and Kobe Pauwels, the latter taking the victory in TCR Europe.
Dušan Borković and Viktor Andersson had been in the mix for the TCR Europe win early on, but on lap two Andersson suffered from a huge slide at Turn 4 which saw him turned around the front of Borković’s Hyundai and into the tyres. Andersson had just a few corners earlier dived past Borković at the first corner.
Although Andersson was able to continue, he ultimately finished two laps down in 20th, whilst Borković recovered to 15th having also been hit by Levente Losonczy at the next corner.
Ruben Volt was the only non-finisher of the race, the Estonian suffering from a technical drama on his ALM Motorsport Honda that saw him retire to the pits on lap ten, having been running in 12th at the time.
Race two is scheduled to get underway at 12:05 CEST (11:05 BST).
Race results
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP | GD |
| 1 | 168 |  |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 13 | 25:05.437 | 1:54.685 | 1 | |
| 2 | 129 |  |
Néstor GIROLAMI | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 13 | 2.100 | 1:54.528 | 2 | |
| 3 | 196 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 13 | 2.657 | 1:54.873 | 4 | |
| 4 | 155 |  |
MA Qing Hua | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 13 | 5.912 | 1:55.128 | 3 | |
| 5 | 122 |  |
Frédéric VERVISCH | Audi Sport Team Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 13 | 10.172 | 1:55.298 | 8 | |
| 6 | 105 |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 13 | 10.779 | 1:55.254 | 5 | |
| 7 | 112 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 13 | 12.432 | 1:55.437 | 6 | |
| 8 | 111 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 13 | 13.208 | 1:55.691 | 11 | |
| 9 | 179 |  |
Rob HUFF | Audi Sport Team Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 13 | 14.113 | 1:55.713 | 14 | |
| 10 | 22 |  |
Kobe PAUWELS | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 13 | 21.714 | 1:56.187 | 16 | |
| 11 | 34 | |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 13 | 22.974 | 1:56.097 | 15 | |
| 12 | 31 |  |
Kevin CECCON | Aggressive Team Italia | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 13 | 31.023 | 1:56.279 | 17 | |
| 13 | 11 |  |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 13 | 31.899 | 1:56.472 | 19 | |
| 14 | 27 | |
John FILIPPI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 13 | 33.020 | 1:56.658 | 18 | |
| 15 | 62 |  |
Dušan BORKOVIĆ | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 13 | 33.344 | 1:56.161 | 12 | |
| 16 | 48 | |
Mikael KARLSSON | Aggressive Team Italia | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 13 | 34.695 | 1:56.798 | 21 | |
| 17 | 39 | |
Lewis BROWN | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 13 | 40.518 | 1:57.319 | 22 | |
| 18 | 264 | |
Levente LOSONCZY | Aggressive Team Italia | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 13 | 44.898 | 1:57.200 | 20 | |
| 19 | 7 |  |
Daniel TKACHENKO | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 13 | 50.356 | 1:57.284 | 23 | |
| 20 | 10 | |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 11 | + 2 LAPS | 2:04.356 | 7 | |
| R | 127 |  |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 10 | DNF | 1:56.391 | 13 |