Hungary WTCR: Tarquini beats Michelisz in finale

Tarquini clinched his second victory of the season after a second safety car period neutralised the end of the race, moving up to fourth in the drivers' standings as a result.

Michelisz made a poor getaway from pole and slipped to third behind the Munnich Motorsport Honda Civic of Esteban Guerrieri and BRC Racing stablemate Tarquini.

Guerrieri, who had shared the lead of the standings with teammate Nestor Girolami before the start of the race, appeared to have the race under control in the early laps as he kept the Hyundais at bay.

But the Honda appeared to struggle to pick up the throttle exiting Turn 5 on lap five, with Tarquini pouncing off the corner and Michelisz also sneaking ahead on the approach to the Turn 6/7 chicane.

Guerrieri then went head on into the barrier on the outside of the final corner on lap 12, an incident that required the intervention of the safety car.

But any thoughts of a Michelisz fightback were quickly quashed when the Hungarian crossed the start/finish line 1.197 seconds behind his teammate on the restart.

A second safety car was called shortly after the restart when Kevin Ceccon (Team Mulsanne Alfa Romeo) went off, and racing did not resume thereafter.

Guerrieri's late drama allowed Yann Ehrlacher to complete the podium in his Cyan Racing Lynk & Co.

Ehrlacher made a good getaway but lost out to Tarquini by hanging out on the wider line through the first corner, only to be promoted back to the final podium slot when Guerrieri went off.

Mikel Azcona scored a second fourth-place finish in a row to cap an excellent weekend for PWR Racing, while Thed Bjork - Cyan's lead representative in the drivers' standings - was fifth.

Girolami moved into an outright championship lead of 10 points thanks to his sixth-place finish, with Rob Huff making another run into the top 10 in his Sebastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen in seventg.

The BRC Racing Hyundais of Augusto Farfus and Nicky Catsburg were eighth and ninth ahead of Jean-Karl Vernay (WRT Audi RS3 LMS).

Aside from Guerrieri and Ceccon, Yvan Muller was the only other retiree. The four-time World Touring Car champion had been given a drive-through penalty for making contact with Cyan teammate Andy Priaulx on the opening lap and, having dropped to last, returned to the garage after completing nine laps.

Race results:

Cla	#	Driver	Chassis	Gap
1	1	Gabriele Tarquini	Hyundai
2	5	Norbert Michelisz	Hyundai	0.739
3	68	Yann Ehrlacher	Lynk & Co	1.535
4	96	Mikel Azcona	Seat	1.785
5	11	Thed Björk	Lynk & Co	2.112
6	29	Nestor Girolami	Honda	2.862
7	12	Rob Huff	Volkswagen	3.051
8	8	Augusto Farfus	Hyundai	3.721
9	88	Nick Catsburg	Hyundai	5.770
10	69	Jean-Karl Vernay	Audi	6.582
11	21	Aurelien Panis	Seat	6.892
12	22	Frederic Vervisch	Audi	7.351
13	50	Tom Coronel	Seat	8.656
14	9	Attila Tassi	Honda	10.748
15	25	Mehdi Bennani	Volkswagen	12.549
16	18	Tiago Monteiro	Honda	14.107
17	33	Benjamin Leuchter	Volkswagen	14.662
18	10	Niels Langeveld	Audi	14.862
19	55	Ma Qing Hua	Alfa Romeo	18.418
20	111	Andy Priaulx	Lynk & Co	18.932
21	52	Gordon Shedden	Audi	19.836
22	14	Johan Kristoffersson	Volkswagen	20.175
23	23	Tamas Tenke	Seat	21.292
24	37	Daniel Haglof	Seat	21.547
	31	Kevin Ceccon	Alfa Romeo	3 Laps
	86	Esteban Guerrieri	Honda	7 Laps
	100	Yvan Muller	Lynk & Co	8 Laps
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