Vitantonio Liuzzi scored his second victory in the International Superstars Series in Race 1 at the Hungaroring, and although he led from start to finish he had to hold off the advances of Thomas Biagi throughout.
While Liuzzi began well from pole in his CAAL Racing Mercedes C63 AMG, Biagi jumped up from fifth to second at the start, relegating fellow BMW driver, one-off entrant and local hero Norbert Michelisz to third.
Biagi was unable to find a way by former F1 racer Liuzzi, crossing the finish line 0.539 seconds behind.
Michelisz dropped behind Audi Sport Italia driver Gianni Morbidelli on lap four, but the series veteran retired with just three laps to go. That allowed the local fans to see their man return to the same podium he topped at the World Touring Car meeting in May.
Christian Klien finished fourth on his debut, less than six seconds behind Liuzzi (with whom he shared a Red Bull F1 drive back in 2005) aboard the #1 Swiss Team Maserati Quattroporte.
Points leader Johan Kristoffersson brought his Audi to the finish in fifth place, edging out Biagi for the fastest lap by just 0.003 seconds.
The Romeo Ferraris Mercedes duo of Camilo Zurcher and Andrea Larini finished sixth and seventh, the latter just ahead of Domenico Ferlito – the fifth driver in as many races so far this season to drive his own team's #19 Jaguar.
Franco Fumi was ninth on his debut in Dinamic team's third BMW, ahead of Thomas Schoffler who started fourth in his Audi but lost places on the first lap before dropping further back.
Michelisz's team boss Gianni Giudici was 11th in his own car with Walter Meloni the last driver to make the finish in 12th.
Morbidelli was classified 13th ahead of fellow non-finishers Francesco Sini and Walter Meloni, while Stefano Gabellini and Max Pigoli were eliminated when the latter lost control of his Jaguar at turn one at the start of lap four.
