Néstor Girolami leaps to points lead with victory in a frenetic second race in Hungary
Néstor Girolami has taken his second win of the weekend in the Münnich Motorsport Honda Civic TCR, after a dramatic second race at the Hungaroring, with the Argentinian finishing ahead of the WRT Audi of Jean-Karl Vernay and PWR Racing’s Daniel Haglöf.
With light rain falling ahead of the race, the question was slicks or wets – and those who chose wets chose incorrectly, though the majority of the field bar some chance takers at the back chose the slick tyres for the start.
Jean-Karl Vernay started from the reversed grid pole position, but he was passed at the start by the Cupra TCR of Daniel Haglöf, with the Swede leading through the first sequence of corners before Girolami blasted past in the Honda, despite starting from sixth on the grid.
The first lap saw an inordinate amount of contact between the front runners, with Mehdi Bennani becoming the first retirement with a broken wheel on his Sébastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR.
Vernay passed Haglöf’s Cupra for the lead at Turn 1 on lap two, meanwhile behind the leading pack, contact persisted with former championship leader Thed Björk become the second retirement of the race in his Lynk & Co 03 TCR after contact.
The BRC Racing Team Hyundais were making quick progress, with Augusto Farfus running up front, with team-mate Nicky Catsburg working his way forward, before their tyres started to fade as the race continued.
On lap seven, both Catsburg and Hyundai team-mate Gabriele Tarquini made a move on Yann Ehrlacher’s Cyan Racing car, with Tarquini and Ehrlacher making contact, with Ehrlacher out with damage.
This promoted Yvan Muller, the poorest qualifier of the Lynk & Cos, now the top runner for the marque, with the Frenchman briefly up to fifth after a battle with Hyundai’s Augusto Farfus, but as the two ran wide that allowed Esteban Guerrieri through into fifth.
Up front, Girolami was caught by Vernay during the final laps, before the Frenchman backed off before the finish, with Girolami winning the race by 2.5 seconds ahead of the Audi driver, with Daniel Haglöf securing his first podium result in WTCR.
Haglöf’s team-mate Mikel Azcona finished fourth in a battle-scarred Cupra, with Guerrieri fifth.
Muller was sixth ahead of SLR Volkswagen driver Rob Huff, who secured his best result of the season in seventh ahead of local driver Attila Tassi’s KCMG Honda, with the BRC Hyundais of Augusto Farfus and Nicky Catsburg completing the top ten.
Girolami now moves into the lead of the championship, tied on 90 points with team-mate Guerrieri, with Thed Björk 20 points adrift after a no-score.
The third race gets underway at 17:00 CEST, with local driver Norbert Michelisz due to start on pole in his BRC Hyundai.
