Levente Losonczy became the second first-time new winner in two days in the TCR Europe series at Zolder, with the Hungarian winning a wild second race ahead of his ALM Motorsport team-mate Ruben Volt. Franco Girolami was able to stay relatively out of trouble to pick up important points for the drivers’ championship with third.

Losonczy started the race, which was still damp from significant rainfall overnight and through the morning from pole position, but bogged down at the start, leaving Felipe Fernández with the lead heading into the first corner from the outside of the front row in his GOAT Racing Honda.

It was local driver Giovanni Scamardi who was the star on the opening lap, having made a great launch and was able to dart around the slow-starting Honda of Losonczy to take P2. Scamardi then lined up and dived around the outside of Fernández at the Villeneuve chicane to take the lead.

This caused Fernández to run wide at the exit allowing Losonczy a run back at him. The two made light contact with Fernández then sliding in the slippery conditions into Viktor Davidovski’s CUPRA behind him.

Davidovski went off circuit and rejoined right in front of CUPRA stablemate Aurélien Comte, which also saw the French driver run wide in turn and fall to the back of the pack.

Scamardi was now leading the race ahead of Losonczy, with Girolami promoted to third in the melee.

Scamardi led the race until lap seven, with the SP Compétition driver’s pace fading due to a braking issue. Losonczy was able to take the lead by the end of the lap with Girolami following him through to second. Scamardi then locked up and hit the rear of Girolami’s car at the Thierry Boutsen chicane, before Scamardi’s race ended two corners later when Davidovski, from two places behind, locked up at Turn 12 and slammed into his side, with both drivers eliminated from the race.

The race was held behind the safety car until lap 13 as the two CUPRA Leons were recovered. At the restart, Losonczy ran wide into Turn 1 which let Girolami into the lead, but Losonczy came right back at him at Turn 2 and took back the lead, with his ALM team-mate Ruben Volt able to come through and move up to second.

Losonczy would hold on to win the race after 16 laps by half a second over Volt, with Girolami completing the podium.

Aurélien Comte was able to recover from the back of the pack to finish in fifth position, making his final move on Rookie class winner Ignacio Montenegro’s Honda at Turn 1 with two laps to go, but couldn’t find his way past the fourth-placed Honda of Felipe Fernández.

The points were critical for Comte, who is the joint leader in the standings with Girolami heading to the next round of the series at the Salzburgring in two weeks’ time.