Ruben Volt victorious in end-to-end TCR Europe opener in Hungary

Ruben Volt held his nerve amid a late safety car restart to win an entertaining opening TCR Europe race of the weekend at the Hungaroring.

The ALM Motorsport Honda Civic Type-R driver started second on the grid but got the jump on Marco Butti before controlling the race to come home by a second at the finish.

Tiago Pernía completed the podium in third aboard his Squadra Martino Honda Civic Type-R.

Off the start, polesitter Butti got a slow getaway in his Monlau Motorsport Cupra León VZ TCR and dropped behind Volt as the field approached the first corner.

Behind, Felipe Fernández also struggled at the start and fell seven places to 10th after contact on the first lap with Mike Halder, with BRC Racing Team’s Alex Ley also slipping down the order after contact of his own.

That allowed Pernía to settle into third place ahead of Gabriele Covini and Viktor Andersson, with Victor Chan and the fast-starting Nicolas Taylor in close company.

Andersson then snuck past Covini for fourth on the fourth lap, with the latter having to hang on for dear life against Chan and Mike Halder.

Things came to a head as Covini was then bullied down to eighth place with damage to the front end of his Hyundai Elantra N TCR, which allowed Chan to move up to fifth, with Hart leaping multiple positions to run seventh.

Meanwhile, Taylor’s efforts took a blow as the Canadian suffered a damage front bumper on his Audi RS 3 LMS. The PMA Motorsport driver was rarely a top 10 contender throughout but did salvage some pride in 11th, after a late overtake on Fernández.

Out front, Volt held a slender nine-tenths of a second advantage over the chasing Butti, without ever really being challenged, but the field was soon bunched up once more after the safety car was deployed following an incident for the Hyundai of János Csik.

The race restarted with just over five minutes remaining, with Volt coming under increasing pressure from a reinvigorated Butti.

The pair edged slightly clear of Pernía who, in turn, established a gap over Andersson who had to fend off the attention of Chan in fourth.

Entering the closing two minutes, Butti continued to pile the pressure on Volt for the lead, to the point where he was nearly pushing his Estonian rival around the first corner.

Volt withstood the assaults from Butti and even opened up his margin to exactly a second by the end of the race. Off the podium, Andersson was fourth, just behind Pernía, while Halder recovered to finish fifth.

Victor Chan was an impressive sixth in his Auto Club RC2 Valles Honda, beating Hart and Ley, with Concepción and Adam Shepherd (Monlau Motorsport Cupra León VZ) rounding out the top 10 finishers.

Race two at the Hungaroring is scheduled to take place tomorrow at 13:00 CEST.