ALM Motorsport’s Ruben Volt got the jump on Monlau Motorsport’s Marco Butti at the start of the opening TCR Europe race of the weekend at the Hungaroring, claiming his second win of the season.
Butti had claimed a convincing pole earlier in the day, but at the start the CUPRA driver wasn’t the quickest away from the line, allowing Volt’s Honda to draw alongside on the run down to Turn 1.
Volt then controlled the remainder of the race, including having to manage a safety car restart, to take victory by exactly a second ahead of Butti, who couldn’t find a way back past the Estonian in the 25-minute plus one lap race.
Butti claimed his best result of the season with second, also marking the Italian’s second visit to the rostrum thus far in 2026.
The podium was completed by Squadra Martino’s Tiago Pernía, the Argentine having moved ahead of Felipe Fernández at the start after the latter was muscled out by BRC Racing’s Gabriele Covini between Turns 1 and 2.
Although Covini briefly held fourth, he was passed by Monlau Motorsport’s Viktor Andersson on the second lap before being pushed wide by Victor Chan on lap three, and ultimately fell down the order when he had to pit following contact early in the race.
After the safety car returned to the pits at the end of lap nine, having been called for due to contact between János Csik and Victor Fernández leaving the former’s Hyundai stranded, Mike Halder was able to pass Chan to claim fifth, a position the ALM Motorsport driver held to the chequered flag.
Chan nonetheless took the finish in sixth, securing the Hong Kong driver’s best-ever result in TCR Europe – and the Honda driver will also start Sunday’s reverse-grid race from pole position.
ALM Motorsport’s Max Hart was seventh, having jumped into the top ten from 13th on the grid on the opening lap, ahead of BRC Racing’s Alex Ley in eighth.
The top ten was completed by Squadra Martino’s Santiago Concepción – the Spaniard having jumped teams for this event – and Monlau Motorsport’s Adam Shepherd.
PMA Motorsport’s Nicolas Taylor held sixth on the opening lap, but the Audi driver found himself muscled out of the top ten on the third lap after he got out of position on the twisty Budapest circuit, struggling to reclaim ground thereafter.
Race two is scheduled to get underway at 13:00 CEST (12:00 BST) on Sunday.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 27 |  |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 13 | 27:53.355 | 1:53.500 | 2 | |
| 2 | 111 |  |
Marco BUTTI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 13 | 1.000 | 1:53.712 | 1 | |
| 3 | 85 |  |
Tiago PERNÍA | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 13 | 4.557 | 1:54.039 | 4 | |
| 4 | 10 |  |
Viktor ANDERSSON | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 13 | 5.859 | 1:54.899 | 8 | |
| 5 | 7 |  |
Mike HALDER | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 13 | 6.243 | 1:54.691 | 7 | |
| 6 | 37 |  |
Victor CHAN Chun Leung | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 13 | 6.764 | 1:54.096 | 10 | |
| 7 | 69 |  |
Max HART | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 13 | 7.813 | 1:54.969 | 13 | |
| 8 | 76 |  |
Alex LEY | BRC Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 13 | 9.602 | 1:55.438 | 5 | |
| 9 | 33 |  |
Santiago CONCEPCIÓN | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 13 | 9.959 | 1:54.759 | 17 | |
| 10 | 117 | |
Adam SHEPHERD | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 13 | 11.013 | 1:55.540 | 12 | |
| 11 | 17 |  |
Nicolas TAYLOR | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 13 | 12.271 | 1:55.358 | 11 | |
| 12 | 19 | |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 13 | 12.607 | 1:55.566 | 3 | |
| 13 | 87 |  |
Junui PARK | Solite Indigo Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 13 | 13.099 | 1:55.192 | 9 | |
| 14 | 97 | |
Junesung PARK | Solite Indigo Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 13 | 14.945 | 1:55.131 | 16 | |
| 15 | 8 | |
Nicola BALDAN | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 13 | 15.244 | 1:55.505 | 15 | |
| 16 | 72 | |
Sandro PELATTI | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 13 | 17.015 | 1:55.898 | 20 | |
| 17 | 22 | |
Giacomo PRANDELLI | Aikoa Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 13 | 19.138 | 1:54.620 | 14 | |
| 18 | 73 | |
Victor FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 13 | 20.797 | 1:56.281 | 18 | |
| 19 | 12 | |
Gabriele COVINI | BRC Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 13 | 23.136 | 1:54.950 | 6 | |
| R | 46 |  |
János CSIK | Speed Technika | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | DNF | 1:56.345 | 19 |