Ehrlacher wins Hungaroring Race 1, Pauwels takes the TCR Europe points

Cyan Racing Lynk & Co driver Yann Ehrlacher took his second victory in the KUMHO TCR World Tour when he won the opening race at the Hungaroring ahead of Néstor Girolami and Mikel Azcona, while Kobe Pauwels took maximum points in TCR Europe for the second time, finishing in front of his Comtoyou Racing teammate Tom Coronel with Kevin Ceccon third in his maiden TCR Europe appearance for Aggressive Team Italia.

Ehrlacher made a good start from pole position and led the field into Turn 1, but Girolami’s Honda was almost alongside the Lynk & Co 03 after starting from P2. Ma Qing Hua was on the inside line but was unable to find a way past, although Ma soon passed Girolami on the opening lap. Viktor Andersson had qualified as the best of the TCR Europe drivers, but the Swedish driver made a poor getaway from the grid and dropped from seventh to thirteenth place.

On Lap 2, Andersson dived past Dušan Borković for P12, but shortly afterwards there was contact between the pair and Andersson’s MA:GP Lynk & Co ended up hitting the barriers. On the same lap, Girolami and Mikel Azcona both passed Ma Qing Hua for second and third places respectively.

After a fairly breathless first few laps, things then settled down among the top ten, with attention switching to battles further down the field. By Lap 5, Viktor Davidovski was having to defend fourteenth position from some serious attention from Kevin Ceccon, while the two Hyundai Elantra N cars of Borković and Mikael Karlsson were fighting for P16. On Lap 7, Andersson limped into the pits with a front-left puncture and sporting body damage following the incident with Borković. Andersson would eventually finish in 20^th place, two laps behind the rest of the field. On the same lap, Borković succeeded in passing Karlsson for P16 and Kobe Pauwels passed Tom Coronel to move into the top ten overall and take the TCR Europe lead.

On Lap 8, Davidovski was fighting hard with Ruben Volt but Ceccon was able to pass the Audi for P14 in the final corner and the pair made slight contact as Davidovski regained the track after being forced to run wide. Two laps later, Ceccon and Davidovski both moved up the order when John Filippi dropped back. When Volt pulled into the pits on Lap 11 and retired, Ceccon was now P12, Davidovski P13, Filippi P14 and Borković P15.

On the penultimate lap, and with Ehrlacher’s lead now over two seconds, Azcona closed up on Girolami to set up a potential last-lap scrap for second place. It wasn’t to be, however, and while Ehrlacher took a dominant lights-to-flag victory, Girolami held Azcona at bay to finish second by a margin of just over half a second. In TCR Europe, Pauwels and Coronel recorded a 1-2 finish for Comtoyou Racing, with Ceccon completing the podium places in his first TCR Europe appearance in an Aggressive Team Italia Hyundai, holding Davidovski at bay until the chequered flag.

The result means Ehrlacher and Norbert Michelisz are on the same number of points in the KUMHO TCR World Tour while Coronel has extended his lead over John Filippi in the TCR Europe Drivers’ championship to 30 points with Pauwels a further 25 points behind in third place.

Yann Ehrlacher (race winner): “Maybe I looked comfortable, but it was hard to manage my tyres, being careful each lap not using too much in case a safety car pops up, but still being quick because the rhythm was super quick in the front. The main thing was the start; Bebu managed to make a very quick start so I closed the door and managed to stay alongside, then it was a case of braking later than him, which is what we did. We missed a little bit the apex, but that’s Touring Car stuff, then we knew that if we got the lead we could get away and get good points.

“The car was amazing and my thanks to the team; it’s never easy to put a quick car on the road with no race practice, because of the rain yesterday in FP2. We did an amazing job and we are now in a very intense fight with Norbi in the championship, it’s very tight, we aren’t the only contenders, everyone is a contender at the moment – we’ve done only 1/3 of the season lets say, but he’s not doing mistakes, we are not doing mistakes, and it’s very equal. It’s nice for the fans and for the show, I’m looking forward to what’s coming next.”

Race result

1. Yann Ehrlacher (Cyan Racing Lynk & Co, Lynk & Co 03) 13 laps

2. Néstor Girolami (ALM Motorsport, Honda Civic Type R FL5) +2.100

3. Mikel Azcona (BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse, Hyundai Elantra N) +2.657

4. Ma Qing Hua (Cyan Racing Lynk & Co, Lynk & Co 03) +5.912

5. Frédéric Vervisch (Audi Sport Team Comtoyou, Audi RS 3 LMS) +10.172

TCR Europe result

1. Kobe Pauwels (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS) 13 laps

2. Tom Coronel (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS) +1.260

3. Kevin Ceccon (Aggressive Team Italia, Hyundai Elantra N) +9.309

4. Viktor Davidovski (Comtoyou, Audi RS 3 LMS) +10.185

5. John Filippi (Comtoyou, Audi RS 3 LMS) +11.306