Dušan Borković returned to victory in a very entertaining Race 1 at the Hungaroring, after a thrilling fight on a track that was humid and treacherous after the morning rain. The Serb of Target Competition, who had won the two races of the season-opener at Paul Ricard, collected his third victory at the wheel of his Hyundai i30 N. He chased the leading trio of Josh Files, Mikel Azcona and Attila Tassi during the first three laps, then chose the right moment to attack while his competitors were fighting.
After a contact between Files – who stopped with a puncture – and Azcona – who lost a few places, the battle continued with Tassi defending second from a charging Julien Briché. A contact ensued, which eliminated them both: Tassi in the gravel, Briché with a drive-through.
This promoted Stian Paulsen to second and Azcona to third; while the Norwegian was happily flying towards his first podium, Azcona did not settle for third and attempted an overtaking manoeuvre. He found himself involved in the duel between Stefano Comini and Reece Barr and was lucky to escape the collision and finish fourth behind Dániel Nagy.
Thus he retained the championship lead, only one point clear of Borković.
Kris Richard, Jens Reno Møller (his best result of the season so far), Jean-Karl Vernay (TCR Benelux winner), Stefano Comini (who recovered from 22^nd on the grid), Danny Kroes and Márk Jedlóczky (who scored his first point) rounded off the top-ten.
Marie Baus-Coppens won the DSG Trophy in 15^th position overall.
Race 2 will start tomorrow at 11:50, with Francisco Moraon pole on the top-ten reverse grid. Live streaming on www.tcr-series.com and www.tcr-series.tv.

Key facts
Grid – The race is declared wet, as the track is still damp from the morning showers, but all cars are on slick tyres
Start – Azcona and Files fight side by side at the first braking, they clash but the Spaniard keeps the advantage; Ryba spins at T1 after being sandwiched between Davidovski and Piro
Lap 1 – Files overtakes Azcona at T2; Tassi too overtakes Azcona for P2; Borković is fourth ahead of Barr, Nagy and Paulsen
Lap 2 – Paulsen overtakes Nagy for sixth; Tassi goes wide at T3 and drops to third; Ficza and Abreu make contact; Comini climbs to 11^th
Lap 3 – Azcona spins at the last turn after clashing with Files; Borković overtakes Tassi for second
Lap 4 – Borković overtakes Files for the lead at T1; Paulsen overtakes Barr for fourth
Lap 5 – Files pits with a puncture; Comini and Møller clash while fighting for ninth; Briché overtakes Paulsen for third
Lap 6 – Comini overtakes Richard for eighth
Lap 7 – Tassi and Briché are in a thrilling fight for second; they make several contacts and eventually Tassi spins off onto the gravel trap
Lap 8 – Paulsen benefits from the commotion and climbs to second; Mora pits with a throttle issue; the safety car is deployed to recover Tassi’s car
Lap 9 – Briché is given a drive-through for the incident with Tassi
Lap 10 – The race resumes, with Briché putting again the show at first corner but almost going off track, before passing Paulsen for a virtual P2
Lap 11 – Barr and Comini sandwich Azcona at T1, they collide and spin, but the Spaniard manages somehow to escape and drops behind Nagy; Borković wins from Briché (who is dropped to 16^th by a 30-second time penalty for not observing the drive-through), Paulsen, Nagy and Azcona