Néstor Girolami holds off Yvan Muller for Hungary Race 1 win
Néstor Girolami has taken his first World Touring Car Cup win, leading from pole to finish in his Münnich Motorsport Honda Civic TCR, holding off four-time champion Yvan Muller, with Girolami’s team-mate Esteban Guerrieri launching back into the lead of the championship after finishing third.
Girolami held the lead at the start of the race, quickly moving over to cover Muller’s Cyan Racing Lynk & Co 03 TCR into the first corner, while Comtoyou Racing’s Aurélien Panis moved up to third in his Cupra TCR into Turn 1, but Guerrieri was able to battle back ahead of the Frenchman at Turn 2, with the Lynk & Co of Yann Ehrlacher coming back through to fourth.
Ehrlacher’s race soon fell apart however, when the Cyan Racing driver suffered a left-rear suspension failure on lap five and fell down the order, struggling to hold onto the car and was narrowly missed by a number of the chasing pack.
On the same lap, Augusto Farfus, the top-running of the BRC Racing Team Hyundais, made his way past the PWR Racing Cupra of Daniel Haglöf for tenth with contact, with Haglöf dropping three spots, and the incident marked for investigation.
During the final few laps, the second Cupra of PWR Racing, Mikel Azcona, began to slip down the order with a handling problem and dropped from 11th to 17th at the finish.
Girolami held on to win the race by four-tenths of a second from Muller, with Guerrieri third.
Jean-Karl Vernay made his way up to fourth in the WRT Audi, with Aurélien Panis securing fifth in his Cupra.
Frédéric Vervisch finished sixth in the Comtoyou Racing Audi, with Thed Björk seventh in his Cyan Racing Lynk & Co, with Johan Kristoffersson scoring Volkswagen’s first top ten result of the year with eighth, with the two BRC Hyundais of Augusto Farfus and Norbert Michelisz completing the top ten.
The next track activity is Qualifying 2 at 10:00 CEST on Sunday.
