Photo: TCR Eastern Europe

Rene Kircher heads 1-2 win for Mertel Motorsport in penalty-filled race two

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Rene Kircher won the second TCR Eastern Europe race at the Hungaroring in front of his Mertel Motorsport team-mate Davit Kajaia and Mat’o Homola.

Sebastian Steibel lined up on pole position in his Aditis Racing Audi RS 3 LMS ahead of Petr Čížek. The two Janik Motorsport Hyundai Elantras of Adam Kout and Homola lined up in third and fourth, respectively. Race 1 winner and Renault driver, Milan Vuković, started from seventh place.

Milenko Vuković, who was disqualified from Race 1 due to failing the post-race technical inspection, started from the back of the grid.

Kout made a strong start to emerge first out of Turn 1 in front of Steibel, while the two Honda Civics of Kajaia and Kircher got up to third and fourth.

Milenko Vuković also started strongly, passing almost half of the grid before Turn 1 and even had to go onto the grass to avoid a couple of cars which stalled off the grid.

Both Kircher and Homola passed Steibel during lap three, to go third and fourth.

Homola meanwhile was struggling a bit with a piece of broken bodywork that was rubbing against his front left tyre.

At the start of lap five, Milan Vuković passed Giacomo Ghermandi for sixth, before the Italian was involved in an incident with Carlo Czepiel. The Hyundai driver hit Ghermandi which left the Janik Motorsport driver with a puncture and forced him to change tyres in the pits.

Milan Vuković was on a charge, passing Steibel into Turn 2 on lap nine.

Kout was the first across the line, but received a ten second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, which resulted in him falling to fourth place.

This meant that the race was a 1-2 win for two Mertel Motorsport Honda Civics of Kircher and Kajaia, who was also penalised with two seconds for exceeding track limits. Homola came home to finish third.

Milan Vuković was classified as fifth, Čížek ended the race in sixth place, in front of the other Renault Megane TCR of Milenko Vuković.

Philipp Diethrich was classified as eighth, with Tobias Poschik and Sebastian Steibel completing the top ten, despite receiving a seven-second penalty for exceeding track limits.

The next TCR Eastern Europe race takes place on May 20-21 at the Red Bull Ring.