Rob Huff wins while rivals collide at Vallelunga in TCR World Tour Race 2

Comtoyou Racing’s Rob Huff won the reversed-grid TCR World Tour race at Vallelunga, which had a chaotic start.

ALM Motorsport’s Néstor Girolami pre-empted the starting lights going out and almost drove into the rear of reversed-grid pole-sitter Ma Qing Hua, earning himself a five-second penalty straight away and dropping to sixth before flying off the track.

Hua was challenged for the lead by his Cyan Racing team-mate Yann Ehrlacher, with Comtoyou’s John Filippi and Frédéric Vervisch also getting involved, but it was Huff who ended lap one in second place.

He passed Hua on lap three, while behind Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk made contact with battling BRC Racing pair Norbert Michelisz and Mikel Azcona and both went off. Hua then had a scary off, taking to the grass and spinning around at speed but with his car thankfully not then going into the path of those behind.

His team-mate Santiago Urrutia also had an incident, careering into the side of Filippi and almost sending his car into the air. The safety car was called out as a result of the chaos, and with the race extended from 14 to 16 laps.

Green flag action resumed on lap seven, and there was more drama as Comtoyou’s Kobe Pauwels had a collision in the midfield and Marco Butti got put under investigation for driving standards.

Meanwhile Huff had a strong restart to put over a second between himself and Ehrlacher, and continued to build that lead over the rest of the race.

Vervisch finished third, and the battle for fourth was decided after multiple instances of contact. Björk initially held the position, and was nudged by Azcona who was trying to pas him. Björk then locked up, and there was more contact from Azcona which not only enabled him to move ahead but also allowed Michelisz to get past Björk too.

Race 1 winner Michelisz pressured his team-mate for the rest of the race and passed him for fourth on the final lap, while Björk had to settle for sixth.

Butti avoided getting a penalty in seventh, and Girolami recovered to eighth. His penalty did not impact his finishing position.

Filippi ended up as the only retiree, as Urrutia was able to get back to the pits and change tyres while Hua managed to stay with the pack thanks to the safety car period.

Michelisz heads the standings on 159 points, 25 ahead of Ehrlacher and 33 ahead of Huff.

The next TCR World Tour race takes place next weekend at the Hungaroring.