Litwinowicz leads as young Hungarian Trepák impresses on day one of EuroRX1

Damian Litwinowicz and Andor Trepák have been fastest out of the blocks in EuroRX1 today at Hungary’s Nyirád Racing Centre, with the pair leading the provisional standings after two qualifying heats.

It was local driver Trepák’s first outing in the EuroRX1 category, and in a similar way to the fast-charging local youngsters in Sweden last time out, the 19-year-old Hungarian has impressed behind the wheel of his Renault Megane in front of his home crowd.

He led the field off the line in his opening heat and commanded the race from the front, before following up that performance with another good run in Q2. He made another strong start but ran wide and dropped down initially to fourth, but an early joker saw him undercut his rivals with superior pace to secure second spot at the finish.

Litwinowicz followed Trepák home in the Q1 before capitalising on that small mistake by the Hungarian young-gun in Q2 to take the victory.

Behind the pace-setters there was the usual EuroRX1 action aplenty with the field fighting tooth and nail in a bid to secure their place in tomorrow’s semi-finals. The partisan Hungarian crowd will be pleased to see Tamás Kárai having made the most of his vast experience at Nyirád – the five-time Hungarian Rallycross Champion is third overnight following consistent finishes of fourth and fifth today.

Championship front-runner Mika Liimatainen had a good first qualifying session ending up third fastest overall before getting shuffled back in his second heat following a joker merge battle with Trepák. The Finn is the closest championship rival to current overall leader Yury Belevskiy, but much as happened in Sweden, the Volland Racing driver has not had a clean start to his weekend.

Despite a great start in his first heat, the Swiss RX1 ace ended up with his nose into the inside barrier of Turn 8 with a half-spin all of his own doing that dropped him all the way down to ninth in the Q1 classification. He faired a little better in Q2 but once again had a moment that left him broadside on the track – this time in Turn 1 on the opening tour.

The championship leader is sixth overnight, just behind another talented Hungarian – Zoltán Koncseg. His run of fifth and sixth-placed finishes today makes it three local drivers in the provisional top five.

Márk Mózer, René Münnich, Ottó Horváth and Attila Mózer round out the top ten as all eyes turn to what is set to be a scorching Sunday in Hungary tomorrow.

Click here to see the full provisional Qualifying Classification.

Click here to re-watch the day’s action on the FIA World Rallycross Championship YouTube Channel.