Junui Park won a highly energetic second race of the weekend at the Hungaroring, marking the South Korean driver’s first podium and victory in the championship, ahead of a fired-up Ruben Volt who went from ninth to second.

It was Hong Kong driver Victor Chan who started from pole position. The Honda driver bogged down at the line, though his getaway was not as bad as stablemate Mike Halder, whose ALM Motorsport Honda stalled from fourth on the grid and dropped to the back of the pack.

Park went from second into the lead, while Viktor Andersson’s Monlau Motorsport CUPRA launched from fourth to second, running ahead of BRC Racing Team Hyundai driver Gabriele Covini.

Chan was trying to recover ground from his poor start and was showing good pace. He was soon battling with Covini, with whom he had a coming together yesterday. After making a move down the inside of Turn 1 to grab third, they then touched at Turn 3, with Chan spinning across the track and proving lucky to be avoided by the chasing pack.

Volt meanwhile was on a charge, moving up to fourth on lap three and splitting the two Hyundais of Covini and Alex Ley.

The most dramatic moment of the race occurred at the start of lap six, which was instigated a lap earlier when Felipe Fernández touched the rear of Junesung Park’s Hyundai as they battled for 11th, causing the rear-left bodywork to rub on the tyre.

As Junesung Park slowed down on the main straight at the end of the lap, he was caught in a pincer movement as the two PMA Motorsport Audis of Nicolas Taylor and Nicola Baldan went around each side of him. Taylor went to the inside, but with a loss of traction, he collided with team-mate Baldan at the first corner. Both cars retired with broken suspension, causing a safety car to be deployed.

At this point, Volt had passed Covini for third, and after the restart, he began to attack Andersson’s CUPRA, while behind him Marco Butti’s CUPRA was also soon past his Italian rival. With three laps to go, Volt passed Andersson at Turn 6 for second and set about attacking race leader Park, but he could not find a way past before the chequered flag on lap 13.

Behind Volt, the two CUPRAs swapped positions, with Butti passing Andersson at Turn 1 on the penultimate lap to claim a podium finish. This followed up his race win yesterday, ensuring he scored the most points of any driver this weekend.

Taylor continues to lead the championship, but his gap is now reduced to just 14 points ahead of new second-placed challenger Andersson, with Andersson’s team-mate Marco Butti just one point further back.

The next round of TCR Europe takes place at Monza on 25–27 September.