To take part at the second event of the 2023 season, we traveled to Hungary. Both TCR Eastern Europe and ESET Cup Series took place at Hungaroring near Budapest.
In Friday's test sessions, our drivers tried to find the best possible car setup to be able to set as fast lap times as possible, which would allow them to have the best possible positions at the starting grid of race 1. The fastest qualifying time of our drivers set Tobias Poschik. It was a shame that his petrol pump got broken and prevented Tobias from setting an even better lap time. Sebastian Steibel set the 15th and Radim Adámek 16th fastest time.
There was a bit of chaos in the first turn right after the start of the first race. Luckily, our drivers were able to avoid any contact and they could continue in the race. Sebastian did a great job and he managed to move up the order to eighth place. Then a safety car was deployed and that was it for race 1. Tobias ended up as 12th and Radim as 18th.
One driver was disqualified after the race and our drivers moved up the order, one position each. The drawn number of drivers to switch their positions at the start of the second race was 7, which meant that Sebastian Steibel stood on pole position.
We would rather forget the second start. Radim and Tobias stalled and both of them lost some positions. Sebastian also dropped down the order a little bit, at the end of the first lap he was third. During the race, he dropped down 3 more positions and he ended up 6th. On top of that, he got the 7 seconds penalty for exceeding track limits, so in the final results he was classified 10th. Tobias ended up right one position above him. After the bad start, Tobias had a good race and he brought his Audi home in 9th place. Radim's car was hard to drive because of the contact with an opponent and he ended up in 16th.
The ESET Cup Endurance race offered more fun to our drivers than the previous one at Oschersleben. Bartosz Groszek started the race from 2nd place on the grid and he managed to get to the lead. Because of the safety car he wasn't able to increase the gap, so, after the drivers exchange, Radim's mission was to hold the biggest opponent's stronger driver behind his back. He managed to do so and we could celebrate the 2nd victory in the season.
The upcoming race weekend in both TCR Eastern Europe and ESET Cup Series calendars is Red Bull Ring, which will take place in the second half of May.