Santiago Urrutia moved up to second in the drivers’ standings of the FIA World Touring Car Cup standings with a lights-to-flag victory in race two at the Hungaroring, after pole-sitter Rob Huff had to start from the pitlane.
Huff was unable to assume his pole position due to the damage to his car caused by broken suspension in race one, with a broken bolt to blame.
The Brit started from the pitlane, but then had to serve a drive-through penalty in the race after not respecting the pit lane exit light, adding insult to injury for the CUPRA driver.
At the start, Urrutia was effectively on pole and assumed an early lead in his Lynk & Co, as Münnich Motorsport’s Néstor Girolami moved up to second ahead.
Home hero Norbert Michelisz had started alongside Urrutia, but the Hungarian was turned around at the first corner when Girolami moved over on him, pushing the Hyundai driver into the path of Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk, who was an innocent party.
That dropped Michelisz to the very back of the pack, as the leading battle became between Lynk & Co’s Urrutia and Honda’s Girolami.
By lap four the Uruguayan had opened up a two-second lead, and he was able to manage that gap for the rest of the race, despite a late spurt by Girolami.
For Girolami, second is just the Argentine’s second visit to the podium this season, whilst third went to the Audi of Frédéric Vervisch.
The Comtoyou Racing driver made a superb start when the lights to went out to jump from what was effectively eighth on the grid up to third on the very first lap of the race.
UPDATE: Girolami was later handed a post-race five-second penalty for contact with Michelisz on the opening lap, dropping him to fifth.
Mikel Azcona claimed fourth in his Zengő Motorsport CUPRA, ahead of Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher in fifth.
The win for Urrutia and fifth for Ehrlacher means the two Lynk & Co drivers are now tied at the top of the drivers’ standings with 101 points.
Yvan Muller was just behind his nephew in sixth, ahead of team-mate Thed Björk in seventh.
Münnich Motorsport’s Esteban Guerrieri jumped up from 12th on the grid to eighth on the opening lap of the race, but the Honda driver couldn’t make any further progress around the tricky-to-pass circuit.
The top ten was completed by the Audi of race one winner Gilles Magnus and the Honda of Attila Tassi.
The only retirements of the race came in an opening lap incident. Hyundai’s Jean-Karl Vernay appeared to tag stable-mate Gabriele Tarquini at Turn 3, pitching the Italian into the Target Competition Elantra of Andreas Bäckman. Tarquini and Bäckman retired from the race with damage, whilst Vernay lost pace and ultimately finished the race down in 13th.
With Vernay failing to score big points in Hungary, he has dropped to third in the drivers’ standings, 14 points adrift of the lead.
The next WTCR event takes place at Autodrom Most in Czechia on 9 – 10 October.
Race results
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 12 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 15 | 28:53.853 | 1:54.121 | 2 | |
| 2 | 29 |  |
Néstor GIROLAMI | ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 15 | 1.245 | 1:54.367 | 4 | |
| 3 | 22 |  |
Frédéric VERVISCH | Comtoyou Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 15 | 2.328 | 1:54.036 | 9 | |
| 4 | 96 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 15 | 3.387 | 1:54.356 | 6 | |
| 5 | 68 |  |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 15 | 4.616 | 1:54.457 | 7 | |
| 6 | 100 | |
Yvan MULLER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 15 | 8.503 | 1:54.693 | 8 | |
| 7 | 11 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 15 | 10.050 | 1:54.709 | 5 | |
| 8 | 86 | |
Esteban GUERRIERI | ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 15 | 12.707 | 1:54.790 | 12 | |
| 9 | 16 | |
Gilles MAGNUS | Comtoyou Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 15 | 13.825 | 1:55.031 | 10 | |
| 10 | 9 |  |
Attila TASSI | ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 15 | 16.248 | 1:55.107 | 14 | |
| 11 | 18 |  |
Tiago MONTEIRO | ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 15 | 17.187 | 1:55.090 | 13 | |
| 12 | 17 | |
Nathanaël BERTHON | Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 15 | 18.124 | 1:55.204 | 11 | |
| 13 | 69 | |
Jean-Karl VERNAY | Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 15 | 19.083 | 1:54.463 | 16 | |
| 14 | 5 | |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 15 | 19.619 | 1:54.283 | 3 | |
| 15 | 8 |  |
Luca ENGSTLER | Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 15 | 23.387 | 1:55.140 | 15 | |
| 16 | 32 |  |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 15 | 28.984 | 1:55.807 | 18 | |
| 17 | 28 | |
Jordi GENÉ | Zengő Motorsport Drivers’ Academy | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 15 | 29.421 | 1:56.290 | 19 | |
| 18 | 79 |  |
Rob HUFF | Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 15 | 30.367 | 1:54.374 | 1 | |
| 19 | 55 | |
Bence BOLDIZS | Zengő Motorsport Drivers’ Academy | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 15 | 32.022 | 1:56.060 | 22 | |
| 20 | 82 |  |
Nicola BALDAN | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 15 | 38.978 | 1:56.196 | 21 | |
| 21 | 26 | |
Jessica BÄCKMAN | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 15 | 39.614 | 1:54.941 | 20 | |
| 22 | 19 | |
Andreas BÄCKMAN | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 2 | DNF | N/A | 23 | |
| 23 | 3 | |
Gabriele TARQUINI | BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 1 | DNF | N/A | 17 |