Yann Ehrlacher cruised to his third World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) victory of the season in race two, while chaos ensued behind him at the Hungaroring.
However, as a result of Gilles Magnus’ exclusion from qualifying, it was Hungarian youngster Bence Boldizs who found himself starting this reversed-grid race from pole position.
Unfortunately for the home fans, Boldizs was unable to keep the raging pack behind him off of the line, slotting into sixth place before the cars had even reached turn one.
Just ahead of him though, contact at turn two between Néstor Girolami and Mikel Azcona pitched the pair of them sideways on the racing line. Azcona managed to get his car pointing back in the right direction, but Girolami wasn’t so lucky.
Broadside on the apex of the turn, the Argentine was collected by a host of cars, including team-mate Tiago Monteiro as well as Thed Björk and Luca Filippi.
Azcona eventually pulled into the pit-lane with damage, as did Girolami, and there was more contact on track elsewhere too.
At turn eight, Tom Coronel stuck the nose of his Audi into a closing gap, resulting in a collision with Hyundai’s Gabriele Tarquini. Both drivers would continue though, behind the battling pair of Luca Engstler and Aurélien Comte.
Once everything had settled down at the end of the first couple of laps, it was championship leader Ehrlacher who had emerged as the race leader. His team-mate Yvan Muller had been the first to get by Boldizs, but the experienced Frenchman soon conceded to Ehrlacher in order to aid his title push.
Relatively unnoticed amidst all the chaos, Norbert Michelisz had quietly charged up the order in his Hyundai. The reigning champion had endured a tricky qualifying session at his home event, but by the midway stage of the race, Michelisz had made his way up to sixth place from fifteenth on the grid.
On lap eight, the safety car was then deployed. Having had a go at Tarquini earlier in the race, Coronel made contact with the other Hyundai of Engstler at the same corner. This time however, the results were more severe for the car in front, with Engstler spinning off into the wall and out of the race after the young German had cut across the nose of the Audi.
Once the safety car was withdrawn, the two Lynk & Cos at the head of the pack pulled away with ease from Jean-Karl Vernay in third, but there was soon more bad news for Coronel.
The Dutchman’s race would go from bad to worse after the stewards administered him with a drive-through penalty for causing a collision.
Out in front though, Ehrlacher extended his championship lead thanks to another race victory, with team-mate Muller making it a 1-2 for Cyan Racing.
Behind them, Vernay held onto the final podium spot ahead of Santiago Urrutia, preventing a Lynk & Co clean sweep of the top three.
In fifth place, Nathanaël Berthon had to fight to the very last corner in order to keep Michelisz behind, while Boldizs survived what was a hectic race in order to secure his best ever WTCR result in seventh.
A trio of Hondas completed the top ten, with Esteban Guerrieri leading Atilla Tassi and Monteiro home in eighth, ninth and tenth places respectively.
The final race of the day will start later on this afternoon at 16:15 CEST (15:15 BST).
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 68 | Yann EHRLACHER |  |
Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 14 | 29:04.903 | 1:54.239 | 3 |
| 2 | 100 | Yvan MULLER | |
Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 14 | 1.496 | 1:54.590 | 2 |
| 3 | 69 | Jean-Karl VERNAY | |
Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR | 14 | 2.128 | 1:54.334 | 5 |
| 4 | 12 | Santiago URRUTIA |  |
Cyan Performance | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 14 | 2.773 | 1:54.096 | 11 |
| 5 | 17 | Nathanaël BERTHON | |
Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 14 | 4.786 | 1:54.269 | 4 |
| 6 | 1 | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 14 | 4.935 | 1:53.919 | 15 |
| 7 | 55 | Bence BOLDIZS | |
Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición | 14 | 6.247 | 1:54.367 | 1 |
| 8 | 86 | Esteban GUERRIERI |  |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 14 | 6.657 | 1:54.415 | 10 |
| 9 | 9 | Attila TASSI | |
ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 14 | 6.992 | 1:54.474 | 9 |
| 10 | 18 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 14 | 7.676 | 1:54.168 | 8 |
| 11 | 30 | Gabriele TARQUINI |  |
BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 14 | 7.942 | 1:54.034 | 13 |
| 12 | 16 | Gilles MAGNUS |  |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 14 | 9.048 | 1:54.313 | 21 |
| 13 | 11 | Thed BJÖRK |  |
Cyan Performance | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 14 | 9.991 | 1:54.040 | 14 |
| 14 | 25 | Luca FILIPPI | |
Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR | 14 | 14.259 | 1:54.012 | 16 |
| 15 | 97 | Nicolas GRUBER |  |
Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 14 | 15.167 | 1:55.348 | 19 |
| 16 | 28 | José Manuel SAPAG | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 14 | 16.850 | 1:55.473 | 18 |
| 17 | 99 | Gábor KISMARTY-LECHNER | |
Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición | 14 | 17.098 | 1:55.568 | 20 |
| 18 | 31 | Tom CORONEL |  |
Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 14 | 31.794 | 1:55.532 | 17 |
| R | 34 | Aurélien COMTE | |
Vuković Motorsport | Renault Mégane RS TCR | 14 | DNF | 1:55.170 | 22 |
| R | 8 | Luca ENGSTLER |  |
Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 6 | DNF | 1:56.521 | 12 |
| R | 96 | Mikel AZCONA |  |
Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición | 2 | DNF | N/A | 6 |
| R | 29 | Néstor GIROLAMI | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 1 | DNF | N/A | 7 |
