Hungaroring WTCC: Morbidelli becomes first non-Citroen 2014 winner

Reigning Superstars champion Morbidelli had to soak up intense pressure from factory Honda driver Tiago Monteiro in the reversed-grid event.

He was tapped into a slide by his fellow former Formula 1 racer Monteiro at the Turn 6 chicane on the final lap.

The incident gave the lead duo a slow and scruffy exit to the chicane, and allowed polesitter Hugo Valente to close onto Monteiro's bumper at the following corner.

No further bold manoeuvres followed in the final half a lap and the first three crossed the finish separated by just 1.2 seconds.

From the outside of the front row, Morbidelli had escaped a squeeze from Valente away from the line to lead into Turn 1, and thereafter produced a faultless performance.

The victory is Chevrolet team Munnich Motorsport's second successive win in the Hungaroring reverse-grid race, following Rob Huff's triumph in the team's SEAT Leon last year.

Tom Coronel executed a strong defensive drive to hold race one winner Yvan Muller at bay for 14 laps.

The reigning WTCC champion did briefly steal the Dutchman's fourth place at Turn 1 on the second lap, only to make a slow exit that allowed Coronel to immediately recover the position.

Championship leader Jose Maria Lopez finished just 0.170s behind Muller, having been forced to lock his tyres on a number of occasions to avoid contact with his factory Citroen team-mate.

Proteam racer Mehdi Bennani non-started race two owing to a turbo failure on his Honda Civic at the conclusion of race one.

Results - 14 laps

Pos Driver                Car                  Time/Gap
 1. Gianni Morbidelli     Munnich Chevrolet    26m15.851s
 2. Tiago Monteiro        Honda                +0.350s
 3. Hugo Valente          Campos Chevrolet     +1.206s
 4. Tom Coronel           ROAL Chevrolet       +5.104s
 5. Yvan Muller           Citroen              +5.435s
 6. Jose Maria Lopez      Citroen              +5.605s
 7. Tom Chilton           ROAL Chevrolet       +6.306s
 8. Gabriele Tarquini     Honda                +7.828s
 9. Sebastien Loeb        Citroen              +8.308s
10. Norbert Michelisz     Zengo Honda          +8.842s
11. Dusan Borkovic        Campos Chevrolet     +11.724s
12. Rob Huff              Lada                 +21.487s
13. Rene Munnich          Munnich Chevrolet    +23.210s
14. James Thompson        Lada                 +26.391s
15. Franz Engstler        Engstler BMW         +55.381s*
16. Pasquale di Sabatino  Engstler BMW         +59.926s*
17. John Filippi          Campos SEAT          +1m19.313s*
18. Yukinori Taniguchi    Nika Honda           +2 laps*

Retirements/not classified

    Mikhail Kozlovskiy    Lada                 3 laps

* TC2