Hungary’s Levente Losonczy claimed his second win of the 2024 TCR Europe season at Brno, leading team-mate Ignacio Montenegro to score maximum points for the Estonian squad, as Franco Girolami drove from tenth to third, capitalising on a last lap collision between his title rival Aurélien Comte and the wild card star driver Bartosz Groszek.

Losonczy started from pole ahead of Groszek and led the way into Turn 1, while Montenegro made a quick getaway in the sister Honda Civic Type R and passed the SP CUPRA of Giovanni Scamardi for third.

Montenegro then passed Groszek’s Aditis Racing Audi at Turn 5 when the Polish driver was baulked by Losonczy.

Aurélien Comte had made a rocket start and soon threaded both the MA:GP Lynk & Co of Viktor Andersson and the Janík Hyundai of Adam Kout to grab fifth before the safety car was called following a collision between the Expres Auto Racing CUPRA of Petr Cizek and the Auto Klub Dubrovnik Hyundai of Zargo Knego at Turn 4.

When the race resumed, Comte quickly swapped places with team-mate Scamardi and began chasing down Groszek, while Losonczy was only briefly threatened by team-mate Montenegro, who then began to pull away in the lead.

Girolami had a steady start but was now making up ground, and began to pressure title rival Comte’s team-mate Scamardi for sixth. Scamardi successfully held off Girolami’s first challenge at Turn 1, but made a mistake at Turn 3 and allowed him through.

Girolami passed Andersson’s Lynk & Co on lap eight and soon closed on Comte’s rear, making a daring pass for fourth on lap ten at Turn 5, but Comte came back at him and forced him wide, retaking the position.

The two then caught up to Groszek’s Audi who was stuck behind Montenegro’s slowing Honda, and on the final lap Comte went for a gap down the inside of Groszek’s car which then closed and saw the two drivers make contact, with Groszek falling to sixth.

Up front, Losonczy went on to win by 1.3 seconds over Montenegro, with Comte initially crossing the line third, but was soon handed a five-second penalty for the incident with Groszek and dropped to ninth, promoting Girolami onto the podium.

Losonczy’s points haul sees him catapult up to fourth in the drivers’ standings, while Girolami’s podium gives the Monlau Motorsport driver a 20-point lead heading to the season finale at Valencia, with Montenegro the only other contender for the title, 43 points behind.

The season finale takes place on September 27-29 at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo near the city of Valencia in Spain.