The 2012 FIA WTCC Race of Hungary was the fifth round of the

2012 World Touring Car Championship season 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

and the second running of the FIA WTCC Race of Hungary. It was held on 6 May 2012 at the

Hungaroring The Hungaroring is a motorsport racetrack in Mogyoród, Pest County, Hungary where the Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix is held. In 1986, it became the location of the first Formula One Grand Prix motor racing, Grand Prix behind the Iron Curtai ...

Mogyoród Mogyoród is a small traditional village in Pest County, Hungary. The Battle of Mogyoród took place here on 14 March 1074, between Solomon, King of Hungary and his cousins Géza and Ladislaus, who were claiming rights to the throne. To commemo ...

near

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. The first race was won by

Yvan Muller Yvan Muller (born 16 August 1969) is a French auto racing driver most noted for success in touring car racing. He is a four-time World Touring Car Championship, World Touring Car Champion, winning the title in 2008 with SEAT, in 2010 and 2011 wit ...

for

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ) is an American automobile division of the manufacturer General Motors (GM). In North America, Chevrolet produces and sells a wide range of vehicles, from subcompact automobiles to medium-duty commercial trucks. Due to the promi ...

and the second race was won by

Norbert Michelisz Norbert Michelisz (born 8 August 1984) is a Hungarian auto racing driver. He was the 2019 winner of the World Touring Car Cup and winner of the TCR World Tour in 2023 and 2024. Career Early career Michelisz was the 2006 Hungarian Suzuki Swi ...

for

Zengő Motorsport Zengő Motorsport is a Hungary, Hungarian motor racing team founded by Zoltán Zengő. They currently compete in the 2025 Formula 4 CEZ Championship championship. The team used to compete in the World Touring Car Cup, World Touring Car Championshi ...

Background

arrived in Hungary leading the championship from both of his Chevrolet team mates, 27 points ahead of

Rob Huff Robert "Rob" Peter Huff (born 25 December 1979) is a British racing driver currently competing in the British Touring Car Championship for Toyota Gazoo Racing UK. He was the 2012 World Touring Car Championship champion and the 2020 Scandinavia ...

with Alain Menu a further point behind.

Pepe Oriola Josep "Pepe" Oriola Vila (born 9 July 1994) is a Spanish racing driver. He became the youngest driver to race in the World Touring Car Championship when he competed in the 2011 season. Oriola is not only the youngest driver to start a WTCC race a ...

was leading the

Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...

Independents' Trophy. Isaac Tutumlu left

Proteam Racing Proteam Motorsport is an Italian auto racing team based in Arezzo that was set up by former driver Valmiro Presenzini in 1997. They are best known for their efforts in the FIA World Touring Car Championship. Their time in the WTCC has seen them b ...

after the Race of Slovakia, reducing the team to one car for

Mehdi Bennani Mehdi Bennani (, born 25 August 1983) is a Morocco, Moroccan racing driver who currently competes in the TCR Europe with Sébastien Loeb Racing. He was TCR Europe Champion in 2020 with the Belgian team Comtoyou Racing. He became the first Morocc ...

. James Thompson also rejoined the series, driving a

Lada Granta WTCC {{Racing car , Car_name = Lada Granta 1600T WTCC , Image = , Category = World Touring Car Championship , Constructor = Lada , Designer = Andrey Ruzanov, TMS Motorsport , Predecessor = Lada Priora , Chassis = Lada 119/VAZ-2190 (Lada Grant ...

for TMS Sport in the first of two outings in 2012.

Report

Free Practice

Yvan Muller set the pace in the first free practice session ahead of

Lukoil Racing Team Lukoil Racing team is the leading Russian motorsport organization; its operations including management, driver training and support, engineering expertise and a quality technical environment, which enables continuous development, building, testing ...

's Gabriele Tarquini and Chevrolet's

Alain Menu Alain Menu (born 9 August 1963) is a Swiss racing driver who is currently working for Team BMR as a driving coach. He was one of the most successful touring car drivers of the 1990s, winning the prestigious British Touring Car Championship twic ...

. Local driver Norbert Michelisz was the quickest independent driver. Three drives were warned for exceeding track limits, with

also being issued with a black and white flag warning. Tarquini went fastest in free practice two, heading the Chevrolets of Muller and Huff and the

SEAT A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e " seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation. Types of seat The ...

Darryl O'Young Darryl Hayden O'Young () is a Canadian-born Hong Kong racing driver. Career Early career O'Young began racing in 1988 at the age of eight. Trained by his father he honed his driving skills in karting winning numerous championships. The highlight ...

. Thompson ended the session ninth in the Lada Granta. Once again, drivers were warned for exceeding track limits, with Tarquini losing one of his times as a consequence.

Qualifying

The Chevrolets started 1–2–3 in the first race with Muller on pole position for the second time in 2012. Franz Engstler started on pole position for the reversed grid second race. Menu lost time behind Engstler in Q2 and started third for the first race. The

ROAL Motorsport ROAL Motorsport (previously known as Ravaglia Motorsport) is an Italian auto racing team, which operated the BMW Team Italy-Spain team in the World Touring Car Championship, and currently competes as BMW Team Italia in the Italian GT Championship ...

drivers were sent to the back of the grid for a parc fermé infringement,

Alberto Cerqui Alberto Cerqui (born 20 June 1992, in Brescia) is an Italian racing driver. He has competed in the World Touring Car Championship. Career Single seaters After winning titles in karting, Cerqui graduated to single-seater racing in 2009, racing in ...

had qualified 13th and

Tom Coronel Tom Romeo Coronel (born 5 April 1972) is a Dutch professional racing driver. Tom's twin brother Tim Coronel, Tim is also a racer, just like their father Tom Coronel Sr. His most important results are winning the Masters of Formula 3, Marlboro Mast ...

had qualified 19th before the penalty.

Warm-Up

Tarquini led the morning warm-up session ahead of the Chevrolet trio of Huff, Menu and Muller.

Race One

Muller led away from the rolling start but an incident behind caused Michelisz to run wide and the chain reaction as several cars recovered forced Tarquini and Tom Boardman into retirement. Bennani had got up to second by the first corner before dropping down to fourth by the second corner, after which the Chevrolets led 1–2–3. Michelisz had recovered to sixth place but was overtaken by Coronel on the final lap, the ROAL driver having climbed from 21st on the grid. Muller took the win ahead of Huff, Menu and Bennani who took his best ever WTCC result and the Yokohama Independents' Trophy win.

Race Two

Engstler started from pole position for the reversed grid race, however a fast start from Michelisz in fifth ensured he led into the first corner. The order behind Michelisz was Oriola ahead of Bennani until Menu came charging through the field from eighth on the grid to take second. Huff finished seventh and Muller finished tenth after a last lap off put him behind

Stefano D'Aste Stefano D'Aste (born 26 February 1974 in Genoa) is an Italian auto racing driver. His early racing career included competing on motorcycles and the Monza International Rally. He has competed in the World Touring Car Championship between 2004 (wh ...

and Engstler. Michelisz took the overall win and the Independents' win in front of his home fans.

Results

Qualifying

*Bold denotes ''Pole position'' for second race. : — The

drivers had their times from qualifying removed after the team broke a parc fermé regulation.ROAL Motorsport sent to the back of the grid
TouringCarTimes.

Race 1

*Bold denotes ''Fastest lap''.

Race 2

*Bold denotes ''Fastest lap''.

Standings after the round

;Drivers' Championship standings ;Yokohama Independents' Trophy standings ;Manufacturers' Championship standings * Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of drivers' standings.

References

External links

{{WTCC race, Name_of_race = FIA WTCC Race of Hungary , Year_of_race = 2012 , Previous_race_in_season =

2012 FIA WTCC Race of Slovakia The 2012 FIA WTCC Race of Slovakia was the fourth round of the 2012 World Touring Car Championship season and the maiden running of the FIA WTCC Race of Slovakia. It was held on 29 April 2012 at the Automotodróm Slovakia Ring in Orechová Potô� ...

, Next_race_in_season =

2012 FIA WTCC Race of Austria 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, Previous_year's_race = 2011 FIA WTCC Race of Hungary , Next_year's_race = 2013 FIA WTCC Race of Hungary

Race of Hungary FIA WTCC Race of Hungary