Hungary WTCR: Ehrlacher leads Honda 1-2 in Race 1

From fifth on the grid, Ehrlacher hugged the inside off the first corner hairpin and snuck into the lead off Turn 2 when teammate Guerrieri, defending from polesitter Norbert Michelisz, ran wide and left room up the inside for the sister Honda to squeeze through.

The two Hondas scampered away from there as Michelisz found himself bottled up behind Yvan Muller's Hyundai, with Ehrlacher resisting final lap pressure from Guerrieri to win.

Guerrieri had grabbed the lead at the start, beating Michelisz on the run to the first corner to take first place.

But the Argentinian ran slightly wide off the corner, allowing Michelisz in his BRC Racing Hyundai to challenge Guerrieri on the run to Turn 2.

After bumping panels with Michelisz approaching the corner, Guerrieri ran slightly deep and forced Michelisz and his teammate Gabriele Tarquini wide, with Ehrlacher - who had jostled with uncle Muller on the run to Turn 2 - jumping the lot of them to assume the lead.

Guerrieri managed to hold on to second, but the delay allowed Muller to get between the Honda and Michelisz and run third early on.

With Muller's mirrors full of Michelisz's similar car, Ehrlacher and Guerrieri were afforded an opportunity to escape and pulled clear, with Ehrlacher extending a lead of more than a second over Guerrieri who in turn was able to escape more than four seconds up the road from the Hyundai squabble.

Clear of any danger from behind, Guerrieri closed in on Ehrlacher in the final couple of laps and had caught his teammate by the time they exited the first corner.

But although Guerrieri pulled out of his teammate's wake on the approach to Turn 2, that was as close as he got as he backed off in the second half of the lap, leaving Ehrlacher a free run to his second victory at World Touring Car level.

After a couple of botched attempts to pass Muller, Michelisz did finally clear the YMR car on the run to the first corner at the start of the penultimate lap to claim the final podium slot at his home event, finishing some 5.250 seconds behind Guerrieri.

Muller finished fourth ahead of Rob Huff, who managed to get by Tarquini after the lap one scuffle and held off the Italian thereafter.

Wildcard entrant Daniel Nagy was a fine seventh in his Hyundai run by Michelisz's M1RA outfit, while Jean-Karl Vernay claimed eighth after completing a pass on the second YMR car of Thed Bjork around the outside of the first corner on lap four.

Race 1 results:

Pos.	driver	Car	Gap
1	Yann Ehrlacher	Honda	-
2	Esteban Guerrieri	Honda	0.692
3	Norbert Michelisz	Hyundai	5.942
4	Yvan Muller	Hyundai	7.290
5	Rob Huff	Volkswagen	9.117
6	Gabriele Tarquini	Hyundai	9.856
7	Daniel Nagy	Hyundai	11.096
8	Jean Karl Vernay	Audi	15.403
9	Thed Bjork	Hyundai	16.202
10	Mehdi Bennani	Volkswagen	21.537
11	Nathanael Berthon	Audi	22.455
12	James Thompson	Honda	25.448
13	Frederic Vervisch	Audi	25.801
14	Benjamin Lessennes	Honda	26.901
15	Aurelien Panis	Audi	27.850
16	Pepe Oriola	Seat	32.592
17	Aurelien Comte	Peugeot	33.231
18	Gordon Shedden	Audi	33.978
19	Attila Tassi	Honda	34.344
20	Mat'o Homola	Peugeot	34.671
21	Denis Dupont	Audi	36.738
22	Zsolt Szabo	Seat	46.586
Ret	Fabrizio Giovanardi	Alfa Romeo	3 laps
Ret	John Filippi	Seat	6 laps
Ret	Gianni Morbidelli	Alfa Romeo	7 laps
Ret	Tom Coronel	Honda	10 laps
Ret	Norbert Nagy	Seat	11 laps