Photo: WTCC

Rob Huff takes victory in race two in Hungary

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Rob Huff won the second race of the day in Hungary and takes his first win of the year and Münnich Motorsport’s first win in the World Touring Car Championship, whilst in the title battle Gabriele Tarquini loses ground to Yvan Muller after the two made contact on the first lap.

Rob Huff made a daring start in the SEAT León WTCC from third on the grid, up to second into the first corner at the start with the rear-wheel drive BMW of Mehdi Bennani comfortably in first place before they got to the corner.

The cars all made it around Turns 1 and 2 safely this time, but the trouble was all in Turn 3 as RML’s Yvan Muller and Honda’s Gabriele Tarquini had contact, with Muller running across the nose of the Honda which spun it hard into the tyre barriers and back on to the track where it was collected by Franz Engstler’s BMW.

The safety car was immediately deployed as Tarquini’s and Engstler’s cars were moved out of the way and Tarquini received medical attention for a neck injury. Tarquini was able to get out of his car to be seen by the medics whilst the safety car held the field for four laps.

At the restart on lap five, Rob Huff launched his SEAT around the outside at Turn 1 and took the lead from Mehdi Bennani, and was able to then defend against the Moroccan for the remainder of the race, crossing the line half a second ahead.

The two bamboo-engineering Chevrolets had a strong race with Alex MacDowall finishing as the best Chevrolet in the race ahead of James Nash, who had to defend against RML’s Yvan Muller for much of the race.

ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel and RML’s Tom Chilton fought hard for sixth position, with Chilton taking the spot on lap 11 but Coronel able to grab the spot back just two laps later.

Rob Huff’s victory is his first since Shanghai last year and his first in a SEAT since 2004 when he competed in the British Touring Car Championship.

Yvan Muller’s fifth place with Gabriele Tarquini not scoring extends the Frenchman’s lead in the standings to 46 points after four races.