Hungaroring WTCC: Huff claims first win of 2013 season
Rob Huff claimed the first victory of his World Touring Car title defence in a safety car-hit Hungaroring finale
A massive crash for Gabriele Tarquini, whose Honda Civic was sent spearing into the barriers on the outside of Turn 3 on the opening lap, brought out a four-lap caution period.
Tarquini was able to walk away from his crash, but was subsequently put in a neck brace and then taken to hospital for checks.
Team principal Alessandro Mariani later confirmed to AUTOSPORT that Tarquini had undergone an X-Ray as a precautionary measure, but had no broken bones.
Mehdi Bennani had held the lead at the time of Tarquini's crash, after both he and second-row starter Huff jumped Alex MacDowall's Bamboo Chevrolet away from the line.
Bennani's early advantage was wiped out by the safety car however, and Huff picked him off brilliantly around the outside of Turn 1 to snatch the lead at the restart.
From therein both men were rarely separated by more than half a second, but Huff resisted the pressure to capture his first win of 2013, and the first WTCC victory for new squad Munnich SEAT.
Bennani was second, while MacDowall came home a relatively quiet third.
Team-mate James Nash in contrast was never allowed to relax as Yvan Muller led a swarm of cars hounding him throughout.
Several times Muller had a look down the inside, but Nash proved equal to every occasion, holding on to beat the Frenchman by just over three tenths of a second.
Muller's life was made slightly easier when team-mate Tom Chilton and ROAL BMW's Tom Coronel tagged each other four laps from the end.
Coronel dropped behind Chilton, and away from Muller's tail, as a result, although he fought his way back two laps later to claim sixth ahead of Chilton.
Home favourite Norbert Michelisz also attached himself to the fight, but rather than being able to follow Coronel through past Chilton he had to run wide to avoid hitting the RML Chevrolet and could not improve upon eighth as a result.
Fellow Honda driver Tiago Monteiro fought back from starting in the pitlane - the legacy of his race one crash - to claim 12th.
Results - 14 laps: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Rob Huff Munnich SEAT 29m35.871s 2. Mehdi Bennani Proteam BMW + 0.426s 3. Alex MacDowall Bamboo Chevrolet + 4.043s 4. James Nash Bamboo Chevrolet + 4.465s 5. Yvan Muller RML Chevrolet + 4.783s 6. Tom Coronel ROAL BMW + 5.490s 7. Tom Chilton RML Chevrolet + 6.835s 8. Norbert Michelisz Zengo Honda + 7.232s 9. Michel Nykjaer Nika Chevrolet + 8.413s 10. Darryl O'Young ROAL BMW + 8.663s 11. Stefano D'Aste PB BMW + 10.180s 12. James Thompson Lada + 14.305s 13. Tiago Monteiro Honda + 14.886s 14. Charles Ng Engstler BMW + 20.289s 15. Tom Boardman Special Tuning SEAT + 23.547s 16. Pepe Oriola Tuenti SEAT + 24.227s 17. Marc Basseng Munnich SEAT + 25.395s 18. Fernando Monje Campos SEAT + 26.536s 19. Hugo Valente Campos SEAT + 31.352s 20. Mikhail Kozlovskiy Lada + 32.330s 21. Rene Munnich Munnich SEAT + 32.710s 22. Fredy Barth Wiechers BMW + 3 laps Retirements: Franz Engstler Engstler BMW 0 laps Gabriele Tarquini Honda 0 laps
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