Defending World Touring Car Champion Yvan Muller took his first win of the season in Race 2 at the Hungaroring after sudden torrential rainfall saw the race red flagged on the second lap.
Commencing in dry conditions, the race saw a dramatic start as local hero Norbert Michelisz clipped the similar BMW of polesitter Mehdi Bennani under breaking for Turn 1, sending the Hungarian careering across the grass on the inside and collecting the BMW of Kristian Poulsen who had made a quick start from the second row to take the lead from Bennani off the line.
Tom Coronel escaped the carnage to lead from Alain Menu, who also made a slow getaway from the front row, and Gabriele Tarquini. The heavens soon opened, and Tarquini took the opportunity to steal the lead. With the whole field on slick tyres the race was red flagged after two laps.
After the restart Menu moved up into second place past Coronel, only to drop a wheel onto the wet grass on the exit of Turn 4, sending his Chevrolet crashing into the barrier on the inside. His teammates Muller and Huff then got past Coronel for second and third.
Muller passed Tarquini on the following lap, with Huff also getting past the Italian on the tenth lap to make it a Chevrolet 1-2. Behind Tarquini, Robert Dahlgren was set to finish fourth and score the best ever result for Polestar Volvo, however he was handed a drive-through penalty that dropped him to ninth after making contact with the SEATs of Pepe Oriola and Tiago Monteiro earlier in ther race.
This allowed Coronel to finish fourth ahead of Monteiro. Franz Engstler made a charge late-on to claim sixth in his BMW, ahead of Javier Villa and Darryl O’Young. Dahlgren and Fredy Barth rounded out the top ten.
Huff continues to lead the drivers’ standings by 31 points ahead of Muller, with Menu’s retirement leaving him 15 points further behind. The next round takes place at Brno in the Czech Republic on 19th June.
Final results (top 10) after 14 laps:
1. Yvan Muller (Chevrolet) 59m02.507s
2. Rob Huff (Chevrolet) + 3.631s
3. Gabriele Tarquini (SUNRED SEAT) + 10.106s
4. Tom Coronel (ROAL BMW) + 11.699s
5. Tiago Monteiro (SUNRED SEAT) + 22.995s
6. Franz Engstler (Engstler BMW) + 23.070s
7. Javier Villa (Proteam BMW) + 26.322s
8. Darryl O’Young (Bamboo Chevrolet) + 31.267s
9. Robert Dahlgren (Polestar Volvo) + 36.832s
10. Fredy Barth (SUNRED) + 37.247s
