Opening Race flash: Monteiro boosts WTCC lead with victory in Hungary
Tiago Monteiro took his second victory of the 2017 FIA World Touring Car Championship by beating Tom Chilton to top spot in the Opening Race at WTCC JVCKENWOOD Race of Hungary.
Monteiro, in a Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team Civic, started from second but snatched the lead at the start when reverse-grid pole-sitter John Filippi stalled as the lights went out. Monteiro held the advantage from then on despite Chilton’s best efforts in his Sébastien Loeb Racing Citroën C-Elysée WTCC. The result means Monteiro’s title lead is up to 40 points after five all-action races.
Rob Huff, who will start this afternoon’s Main Race on pole for ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport, enjoyed an exciting race-long battle for third with the Volvo Polestar of Néstor Girolami. Huff chased Girolami for several laps and finally made his decisive move on the penultimate lap on the race, having started ninth.
Nicky Catsburg was fifth ahead of the Chevrolet Cruze of Esteban Guerrieri in sixth, while Mehdi Bennani recovered from a five-place grid penalty handed out for a driving indiscretion at WTCC OSCARO Race of Italy, which had demoted him to P13 on the grid, to cross the line in seventh. RC Motorsport’s Yann Ehrlacher was eighth, while Tom Coronel and Aurélien Panis were ninth and P10 respectively with Ryo Michigami, Kevin Gleason and Dániel Nagy next.
Filippi was never really able to recover from his stall at the start of the race and things went from bad to worse when the Frenchman was forced to retire his SLR Citroën C-Elysée WTCC on the final lap of the race with mechanical problems.
There was heartbreak too for home favourite Norbert Michelisz who dropped out of third place, the result of lap-one damage caused by contact with Thed Björk when the pair were battling for position. Björk also retired.
The Main Race at WTCC JVCKENWOOD Race of Hungary is set to get underway at 13h45 local time.
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