Victories at Hungaroring for Groszek and Galáš

Bartosz Groszek and Jáchym Galáš shared wins in the TCR Eastern Europe opening event at the Hungaroring. The Pole drove his Aditis Racing Audi to an authoritative win in the first race, while the Janík Motorsport-run Hyundai cars finished 1-2-3 in Race 2 with the Elantra cars of Mat’o Homola and Galáš ahead of Petr Semerád’s i30 N. Galáš, who had recovered after starting last on the grid, was then promoted to first, following the penalty imposed to Homola for colliding with Milenko Vuković’s Renault Mégane during the penultimate lap. 

In the first race, Groszek converted the pole into victory as he rejected Homola’s late charge and beat him by less than two tenths. At the start Galáš was faster than Groszek but he clashed with Milovan Vesnić into Turn 2 and they both retired. Groszek avoided the incident and ran away, while Vuković who had taken a rocket start from P10, moved to second ahead of Sebastian Steibel. After dropping to fifth following the commotion in T2, Homola recovered to second overtaking Levente Losonczy, Steibel and Vuković. Homola managed to close the gap to Groszek, but eventually lost the final sprint; behind them Vuković successfully defended third from Semerád and Losonczy. After the race, Homola was handed a five-second penalty for track limits, but this did not affect his position.

Radim Adámek had the pole for Race 2, thanks to the draw that reversed the first ten positions from Race 1; he led at the start, but during the first lap dropped to sixth while Steibel, Tomasz Rzepecki and Vuković took the first place one after the other. Vuković benefitted from the battle and built a small margin, while Homola and Semerád moved into second and third. In the second half of the race, Homola closed the gap to the leader and eventually passed him after their cars made contact. Galáš took the opportunity to pass Vuković for P2 and then the latter lost third to Semerád during the final lap. After the race, Homola received another penalty of 10 second for the incident with Vuković and dropped to sixth, while Galáš inherited the victory.

The championship will resume on at the Red Bull Ring on 4/5 June.

Hungaroring – Race 1
1. Bartosz Groszek (Aditis Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 13 laps
2. Mat’o Homola (Janík Motorsport, Hyundai Elantra N), 5.188
3. Milenko Vuković (Besagroup Vuković Motorsport, Renault Mégane RS), 29.148

Hungaroring – Race 2
1. Jáchym Galáš (Janík Motorsport, Hyundai Elantra N), 13 laps
2. Petr Semerád (Janík Motorsport, Hyundai i30 N), 2.277
3. Milenko Vuković (Besagroup Vuković Motorsport, Renault Mégane RS), 2.951

Championship points
1. B. Groszek, 40 pts; 2. P. Semerád, 30; 3. M. Vuković 30

Picture: TCR Eastern Europe