TCR Europe reaches its halfway point at the Hungaroring

This weekend, the 2023 TCR Europe series reaches its halfway point with a pair of races at the Hungaroring on the outskirts of Budapest, which hosts a round of TCR Europe for the first time since 2019. The event is also the third and final time that competitors in the 2023 KUMHO TCR World Tour will join the TCR Europe grid after events in Portimão in Portugal and Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.

Three weeks ago, John Filippi became the first TCR Europe driver to win a round of the KUMHO TCR World Tour when his Comtoyou Audi RS 3 LMS took victory in Race 2 at Spa. That result, together with finishing third in the opening race, netted him a total of 70 points over the weekend and exactly matched the points haul scored by Tom Coronel with a pair of second-place finishes. Coronel currently leads Filippi in the Drivers’ championship standings by 16 points with Coronel’s Comtoyou Racing teammate Kobe Pauwels – the winner of Race 1 at Spa – a further 43 points adrift.

The only non-Comtoyou driver to win a race so far this year, Target Competition’s Dušan Borković, is in fourth place in the standings, 24 points behind Pauwels. The last time TCR Europe visited the Hungaroring, Borković recorded a pair of fourth place finishes, but the Serb won Race 1 at the track the previous year and so is one of the few drivers in this year’s championship with previous experience of the circuit. Another is Filippi, who drove a Vuković Motorsport Renault Mégane RS to 13^th place in Race 1 four years ago but retired after a crash on the opening lap of Race 2, while Viktor Davidovski finished 24^th in both races in 2019 and 14^th and 18^th in 2018 driving a PSS Racing Honda Civic.

There are some changes to the entry list compared to Spa; Isaac Smith is replaced by the Ukrainian driver Daniel Tkachenko at Volcano Motorsport while Aggressive Team Italia will enter a total of three Hyundai Elantra N cars, with Kevin Ceccon joining Sweden’s Mikael Karlsson and Levente Losonczy; the Hungarian teenager competing on his home event.

Drivers and teams contesting the KUMHO TCR World Tour will arrive in Hungary less than a week after their event at Vallelunga in Italy, which saw race wins for Norbert Michelisz and Rob Huff. After six races, Michelisz leads Yann Ehrlacher by 25 points with Huff a further 8 points behind in third place. With the Budapest circuit regularly featuring on the FIA WTCR and the WTCC calendars, most drivers in the TCR World Tour will have driven there in the past, while Norbert Michelisz, his teammate Mikel Azcona, Rob Huff, Santiago Urrutia, Yann Ehrlacher and Néstor Girolami have all tasted victory in Hungary. One change to the World Tour entry list compared to Vallelunga is that Estonia’s Ruben Volt will drive the second ALM Motorsport Honda Civic Type R FL5, partnering Néstor Girolami.

The Hungaroring has long been considered a tough challenge, with high temperatures and the bowl-like geography of the circuit usually resulting in a dusty track surface. Overtaking is tricky, so it has a reputation as a venue that favours the brave. Finally, one factor that can’t be overlooked is the huge level of local fan support for their hero Norbert Michelisz and so ‘Norbi’ will be guaranteed to have the biggest cheers this weekend!

Event timetable (local time)

Friday June 16^th

11.58 - Free Practice 1

17.43 - Free Practice 2

Saturday June 17^th

10.55 - Qualifying

17.05 - Race 1

Sunday June 18^th

12.05 - Race 2

Qualifying and both races will be streamed live on tcr-series.tv and on the TCR TV app.

KUMHO TCR World Tour – calendar

29/30 April – Autodromo do Algarve, Portimão, Portugal