Sunday Review
Yann Ehrlacher scored his third victory of the WTCR – FIA World Touring Car Cup season in the reverse-grid Race 2 at WTCR Race of Hungary.
The Goodyear #FollowTheLeader extended his title advantage after rising from third on the grid, as his uncle and Cyan Racing Lynk & Co team-mate Yvan Muller shadowed him to score a one-two for the Swedish team. Ehrlacher now leads Race 1 winner Esteban Guerrieri by 40 points ahead of the final race of the day at the Hungaroring.
Local hero Bence Boldizs started from the DHL Pole Position in his Zengő Motorsport CUPRA Leon Competición, but lost out on the run to Turn 1 as fellow front row starter Muller took the lead, with Ehrlacher also getting past to run second. Muller then allowed his nephew to pass on the first lap to open up a comfortable margin out front.
“It was a really good race from the start to the end,” said Ehrlacher. “I had a good start and got past the CUPRA, then Yvan covered my back. It doesn’t have the same value to me winning a reverse-grid race, but it’s still 25 points.”
Behind the Lynk & Co 03 TCRs, there was action at Turn 2 on the first lap as Race 1 podium finisher Néstor Girolami’s Honda made contact with Mikel Azcona’s CUPRA, damaging both cars. They retired to the pits for repairs before Race 3.
Wildcard Luca Filippi’s Team Mulsanne Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR by Romeo Ferraris was also spun around having started in P16. There was also contact between Tom Coronel’s Audi and Gabriele Tarquini’s Hyundai.
Jean-Karl Vernay had also got past Boldizs and led a train of cars that lined up behind Muller. Then on lap eight, Coronel tagged Luca Engstler at Turn 8 and the WTCR Rookie Driver's Hyundai nosed hard into a barrier, sustaining heavy front-end damage. The incident led to a safety car intervention.
When the action resumed on lap 11, Ehrlacher and Muller easily got the drop on Vernay, who settled for a podium third place and the WTCR Trophy victory in his Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR by Romeo Ferraris. Santiago Urrutia’s Cyan Performance entry shadowed him to the finish to make it three Lynk & Cos in the top four, the Uruguayan having impressed from P11 on the grid.
Nathanaël Berthon claimed fifth place in his Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport Audi RS 3 LMS, ahead of local hero and King of WTCR Norbert Michelisz in his BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse Hyundai i30 N TCR. Boldizs slipped to a seventh place finish.
Guerrieri kept out of trouble to score solid points in eighth from P10 on the grid, ahead of ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport team-mates Attila Tassi and Tiago Monteiro, who completed the top 10.
Tarquini recovered from his contact with Coronel to finish in P11, ahead of Gilles Magnus’s Audi and Thed Björk’s Lynk & Co. Aurélien Comte finished in P14 in Vuković Motorsport’s Renault Mégane RS TCR, ahead of a recovering Filippi.
Coronel was given a drive-through penalty and finished down in P19.
