Back to back with the previous Slovakian round, the fourth round of the FIA World Touring Car Championship series was held at Hungaroring, Budapest in Hungary, as the second race in two consecutive weeks. Although this was the only third Hungarian round in the WTCC history since its first visit in 2011, a huge crowd of spectators came to the circuit to watch hotly fought battles again this year.

Hungaroring is known as one of typical technical circuits and one of the toughest in terms of tire wear, as the track surfaces are rough and coarse. While the part around the last corner had been resurfaced before this event, the drivers still had to be careful about their tire management. Especially for the drivers of front wheel drive (FWD) cars, poor tire management may well lead to degradation of performance in the second half of a race. And this is where the BMW drivers may have their chances because their rear wheel drive (RWD) cars are normally easier on tires than the front wheel drive cars are.

But, during the free practice sessions, the FWD cars were leading, as Gabriele Tarquini was fastest in FP1 in one of two factory prepared Honda Civics and his teammate Tiago Monteiro followed. However, then the Chevrolet Cruze drivers dominated the second session in which Yvan Muller was the fastest man and he was followed by Tom Chilton and James Nash.

The trend continued in the subsequent qualifying session. Tarquini set the fastest qualifying time again in Q1 but Muller was only 0.097 seconds shy of the Italian and came in second. And Robert Huff in another FWD car, SEAT Leon, was the third fastest in the session.

For this race, the minimum weight of Honda Civic was increased by 30kg, according to the Compensation Weight rules, following to the model's maiden victory in the last Slovakian round, but the Japanese car was strong enough in Hungary yet. While Muller secured the pole position by setting the fastest time in Q2, Tarquini was still in second and 0.380 seconds behind the Frenchman. The other two Civic drivers also performed well, as Norbert Michelisz ended the session in third and Monteiro in fourth.

On the other hand, Muller's qualifying time was over one second faster than last year's pole position time that he had set. Moreover, nine drivers out of 12 who made their way into Q2 broke the last year's fastest qualifying time mark, which meant nine drivers were within one second, and this confirmed the fast and continuous technical improvement of the WTCC cars.

On the starting grids of Race 1, the center of attention was the local boy, Michelisz, in the Zengo Motorsport run Civic, as many Hungarian spectators cheered for him with continuous sound of cheer horns not only from the grand stand but from all the spectator area along the track as well. And when the public address announcer mentioned his name, the cheering became even louder and the voice of announcer was almost drowned out.

With Muller on the inside and Michelisz on the outside of the front row, the field completed the formation lap and came back to the pit straight. The black out of red lamps signaled the start of Race 1. On the approach to the first corner, Muller kept the inside of Turn 1 and led the field. Meanwhile, Huff rocketed from the eighth grid and managed to move up to fourth by driving through the outmost side of the track when he entered the first corner.

Starting from the fifth grid, Tom Coronel in the ROAL Motorsport run BMW lost a few positions at the beginning of the race and then hit Monteiro at Turn 2. Their contact caused a pileup behind them and, among the innocent victims, Pepe Oriola and James Thompson were forced to end their races. Monteiro continued for a while but he couldn't make a turn properly at Turn 1 on the next lap due to the damage to his car from the incident and crashed into the tire barriers.

While the leading cars were running in status quo, the major player behind them was Coronel. After passing Mehdi Bennani and moving up to sixth on Lap 2, the Dutchman started to push Chilton just in front of him very hard. When they exited the last corner, Coronel was well within the distance to get into the Chevrolet driver's slip stream but Chilton wouldn't give way easily and fended off the Coronel's overtaking attempt at Turn 1.

However, Coronel kept on threatening Chilton from behind by weaving his car throughout the subsequent laps. On Lap 5, the Dutchman finally came abreast of his opponent's Chevrolet at Turn 12, a right angled right hander, from the outside and they entered the next Turn 13, a left hander hair pin corner, still in side-by-side but now Coronel on the inside. The BMW driver slightly ran wide here but managed to get ahead of Chilton. The Briton, on the other hand, had to steer to the outside to avoid contact with Coronel and this allowed Bennani who was just behind Coronel to use the space to pass Chilton at the same corner.

Coronel looked to be unstoppable even in the second half of the race and now began to attack Huff. The Dutchman made a move from the outside at the last corner on Lap 8 but the reigning champion was able to defend his position. Two laps later, Huff made a small mistake and was almost going sideways at Turn 8. This allowed Coronel to come abreast of Huff from the outside but then he couldn't keep his car on the track, as he was a little bit too optimistic. The Dutchman's slight mistake resulted in giving his position to Bennani.

Keeping away from the battles behind, Muller and Michelisz drove steadily and there was no serious fight between them. Thus, the Frenchman completed his almost solitary journey to the checkered flag and scored his third win of the season. When Michelisz crossed the finish line in second, the Hungarian spectators celebrated him loudly for his podium finish that the local fans wanted.

Tarquini finished in third and got on the podium in three consecutive races. By finishing in fifth overall, Bennani won the YOKOHAMA Trophy class for the first time this year.

After the second race of Auto GP, Race 2 of WTCC was ready to go. The starting grids were decided according to the reverse grid rules as usual, so the top ten qualifiers were placed in reversed order on the grids. Monteiro, who was to sit on the seventh grid for Race 2, was demoted the 20th grid because the team asked for the neutralization of Parc Ferme rules to repair his car that had been damaged in Race 1. But he was forced to start the race from the pit lane anyway, as the repairing work didn't finish by the time when everyone had to be on the grid.

Making the most of RWD car's advantage in a standing start, Bennani, who was on the second grid, in the Proteam Racing run BMW beat the pole sitting Alex MacDowall on their way to the first corner. Starting from the second row, Huff followed the Moroccan's path and moved up to second.

But there was a big accident at Turn 3. In a crowded pack immediately after the start, Muller collided with Tarquini and the Italian who was on the outside of the track was pushed out and sent into the barrier violently. His Civic was momentarily launched in the air and, as the run-off area was narrow there, bounced back on the track. To make the matters worse, Franz Engstler crashed into Tarquini's car, as the German just came across the spot.

The accident caused the Safety Car to come out and racing was resumed on Lap 5. As soon as the Safety Car left the track and the signals turned green, Huff started to attack on Bennani and became abreast of him on the approach to Turn 1. With the Briton on the outside, the pair went through the corner side by side but, soon after that, Huff managed to get ahead of Bennani.

This was the crucial moment of Race 2. After snatching the lead position, the reigning champion had no difficulty to keep it. While there were some fights behind him, particularly among Nash, Muller and Coronel, no one really was able to threaten Huff until the checkered flag fell. This was the Briton's first victory with his SEAT Leon.

Bennani finished the race in second overall and made a double in the YOKOHAMA Trophy class, followed by the fellow independent class competitors, MacDowall and Nash, who came in third and fourth overall respectively.

Hungaroring had received a partial resurfacing work after the last year's WTCC event, so there was a relatively new surface in the area around the last comer before the pit straight. Generally, the surfaces are flat but, especially in the corners, they were aged and became rougher with about 10mm small stones appearing on the top of them. Those stones have been honed by tires, so they don't have sharp edges. Therefore, the asperity of stones provides a certain level of grip but the surfaces of asphalt are rather slippery. In contrast, the last corner has quite flat surfaces that are fully covered by new asphalt.

As the cars keep improving, it is difficult to know how much affect the new surfaces have on the lap time this year. But it was clear that the drivers enjoyed better grip around the area because almost every car looked stable from the exit of the last corner to the pit straight.

The Hungarian circuit is known to be tough on tires in general, so every driver has to make a tactical plan with tire management in mind. The runner-up of Race 1 and the only Hungarian driver in the field, Norbert Michelisz, pushed very hard from the start to answer the cheering from a huge crowd of local spectators. But, as a result, he seemed to use his tires too much in the early stage of the race, which led to a little tough situation for him in the second half. Nevertheless, he bravely fought to keep the second place until the checkered flag fell and earned well-deserved praise from his compatriots.