Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Hungary WTCC: Jose Maria Lopez leads Citroen one-two

Jose Maria Lopez took his third main race World Touring Car Championship win of the season at a soaking Hungaroring, ahead of Citroen team-mate Yvan Muller

Citroen's victory made amends for a strange tyre call in race one to record the team's first one-two finish of the season, although that was threatened by Rob Huff who had split the pair before receiving a contentious drive-through penalty.

Lopez led off the line, with Muller and race one winner Mehdi Bennani storming through the order from their lower top 10 starting positions.

Huff just got the better of Muller through the first two corners and slotted into second, but with Lopez escaping Muller continued to hound Huff, with the Briton succumbing to his rival at Turn 5 just before the deployment of the safety car to recover Gregoire Demoustier's stricken Sebastien Loeb Racing Citroen C-Elysee.

Lopez had built an advantage of more than three seconds before the safety car, but he had no such comfort on the race restart as Muller and Huff - who this time was able to stick with the Citroens - stalked him.

The trio started lap 10 in close formation, but with Muller refusing a look at his team-mate at Turn 1, Huff decided to make his move and looked up the inside of Muller into Turn 2, only for the Frenchman to move across the front of Huff's Civic.

With Huff already committed to the corner, the pair made contact that was sufficient enough for Muller to edge wide, handing Huff second.

The Briton then closed back up to the rear of Lopez - only to be handed a drive-through penalty as a result of the move, ending his hopes of victory.

Muller looked for a lap or two as though he might be able to challenge Lopez from there, only for the latter to stretch his advantage in the final laps, eventually winning by 2.821 seconds.

Tiago Monteiro finished third for Honda, having rebuffed the advance of Polestar's Thed Bjork who was fourth.

Tom Chilton followed up his second place in race one with a WTCC Trophy win in fifth, while Huff recovered to sixth in a wild final lap.

The Briton had started it in eighth, having just passed Bennani - himself having been hit with a drive-through - and made his way past Tom Coronel and team-mate Norbert Michelisz, who had fought his way into sixth only to suffer a problem with his left-rear wheel on the final lap.

Coronel had two attempts to pass Michelisz - the first sending him into a half spin - and was able to claim eighth ahead of Bennani, with Michelisz dropping to 10th on the run to the line after Hugo Valente was able to out-drag the Hungarian off the final corner.

RESULT

Pos Driver Team Car Laps Gap
1 Jose Maria Lopez Citroen Racing Citroen 17 38m37.180s
2 Yvan Muller Citroen Racing Citroen 17 2.821s
3 Tiago Monteiro Honda Racing Team JAS Honda 17 14.981s
4 Thed Bjork Polestar Cyan Racing Volvo 17 18.026s
5 Tom Chilton Sebastien Loeb Racing Citroen 17 19.834s
6 Rob Huff Honda Racing Team JAS Honda 17 24.535s
7 Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet 17 26.979s
8 Mehdi Bennani Sebastien Loeb Racing Citroen 17 27.898s
9 Hugo Valente LADA Sport Lada 17 36.557s
10 Norbert Michelisz Honda Racing Team JAS Honda 17 36.867s
11 Fredrik Ekblom Polestar Cyan Racing Volvo 17 42.681s
12 John Filippi Campos Racing Chevrolet 17 50.959s
13 Nicky Catsburg LADA Sport Lada 17 58.529s
14 Rene Munnich Munnich Motorsport Chevrolet 15 2 Laps
- Ferenc Ficza Zengo Motorsport Honda 17 Disqualified
- Gabriele Tarquini LADA Sport Lada 5 Collision
- Gregoire Demoustier Sebastien Loeb Racing Citroen 2 Accident


Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Honda cleared by WTCC stewards after technical investigation
Next article Rob Huff questions 'inconsistent' penalties in WTCC

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe