Hyundai Motorsport customer results round-up bulletin - Hyundai Poland supported i20 R5 driver Jari Huttunen leads the WRC 3 standings after taking second place at Rally Estonia where the series resumed its 2020 season
- Bruno Magalhães leads the Portuguese national rally championship after winning Rali do Alto Tâmega in his Team Hyundai Portugal i20 R5
- Dušan Borković secured the TCR Eastern Europe title with another perfect weekend, taking two wins in his M1RA-run i30 N TCR at Brno.
– The WRC was the latest series to restart its 2020 season, immediately bringing success for i20 R5 crews. Meanwhile further success strengthened Hyundai crews’ positions in the lead of national rally series in both Portugal and Poland and i30 N TCR customers secured another title following a stellar 2020 campaign.
WRC 3 podium puts i20 R5 atop points’ standings
Jari Huttunen continued his excellent form at the wheel of the i20 R5, finishing second in WRC 3 at Rally Estonia (September 4-6) as the World Rally Championship restarted. The Hyundai Poland backed driver lost some time in the early stages to a puncture, but was able to set times good enough to put him and co-driver Mikko Lukka among the front runners among the R5 crews on the event. Twice on the final day of running he was the fastest among the category – beating not only his direct rivals in WRC 3, but also the works teams contesting WRC 2 – as he rose to second in WRC 3 and third of all the R5 entrants.
The points for second, added to his win in February’s Rally Sweden, put him in the lead of the WRC 3 points’ standings after four events of the season. |
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Hyundai Portugal squad lead national championship after second win
Team Hyundai Portugal driver Bruno Magalhães leads the Portuguese national rally championship after taking a second consecutive win of the season at Rali do Alto Tâmega (August 28-30). Despite setting the quickest time on the opening stage of the tarmac event he, and co-driver Carlos Magalhães, reached the overnight halt in second place.
However, with the top time on all four of the stages run on Sunday to complete the weekend he was able to retake the top spot and pull away to win overall by more than 11 seconds. They now hold a nine point lead at the head of the series after four events where they have never finished worse than second. |
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Second victory of national season for Hyundai Poland crew
Jari Huttunen’s successful season continued at Rajd Śląska (September 11-12) where he won the second round of the Polish national rally season. Running with the support of Hyundai Poland Huttunen won four of the seven stages on the event to come out on top of a close battle for the major positions.
Pole Łukasz Byśkiniewicz held a podium place after the first runs of the events, but narrowly missed out on third place in the final standings in his APR Motorsport-run i20 R5. |
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Turk dominant for second Slovenian win
Hyundai Slovenia supported driver Rok Turk was dominant on his way to overall victory at Rally Zelezniki (September 11-12) – the second round of the national championship. With co-driver Blanka Kacin he won every stage on the event to build a lead of over 30 seconds in the final standings. The result extends his lead at the top of the championship, having also taken maximum points from the opening round of the season. |
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Double i20 R5 class podium in Italian WRC series
i20 R5 crews finished first and third in class at the Rally San Martino di Castrozza (September 4-5), the second round of the Italian WRC series. Driving a car prepared by Promo Racing Andrea Nucita was the fastest man in the class on all the six stages that made up the rally – on one occasion setting the fastest time overall, also beating those drivers competing in older WRC-spec machinery. Unsurprisingly, it was Nucita who won the R5 class in third overall – finishing only 0.1 seconds behind the runners-up in the WRC class and less than nine seconds off the overall lead.
Luca Rossetti completed the R5 podium in his Friulmotor-run, Hyundai Slovenia sponsored i20 R5, by finishing fifth overall. |
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First endurance IMSA win for Veloster N TCR
Bryan Herta Autosport won their fourth consecutive IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge race at the four-hour event at Road Atlanta (September 4-6). As well as being a second win of the season for the #33 Veloster N TCR driven by Gabby Chaves and Ryan Norman it was the team’s first endurance format victory in the championship, which more regularly features two-hour races.
The Hyundai America supported team were strong throughout the event, with another of their four car entry taking pole position before all their Velosters were part of the lead battle at some point during the race. Their pace showed in the final result, with Spencer Brockman and Parker Chase combining to complete a 1-2 for the team in second place for their third consecutive podium of the season. |
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i30 N TCR driver secures Eastern Europe title
Dušan Borković was crowned TCR Eastern Europe champion with three races still to run in the season after he scored his fifth win in as many starts in the series. At the weekend in Brno (September 4-6) the M1RA driver continued his unstoppable form, as he took a double pole position from qualifying and led almost uninterrupted through both encounters. Victory in Race 1 was enough to give him an unsurmountable lead in the points’ standings before another success in Race 2 only served to underline his dominance this season.
BM Racing Team driver Szymon Jabłoński also enjoyed a strong weekend with his i30 N TCR, taking a pair of third places after some great driving which saw him move up from sixth on the grid in Race 1, before doing the same from eighth in Race 2 to round out the weekend. |
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First Danish win for i30 N TCR in inaugural season
Martin Andersen claimed his, and the i30 N TCR’s first win in TCR Denmark as part of a busy weekend for the series at Jyllandsringen (September 5-6). Andersen finished third in the first of five races during the weekend, before sprinting from sixth on the partially reversed grid for Race 2 to take victory by more than 40 seconds.
He followed his win by a consistent performance in Sunday’s three encounters – despite being given a penalty for contact with another competitor and now sits second in the standings for the inaugural year of the championship. |
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1-2 finish highlights Hyundai customers’ weekend in Russia
Lukoil Racing Team driver Ivan Lukashevich and Carville Racing’s Grigory Burlutskiy turned an all i30 N TCR front row into a Hyundai 1-2 in Race 1 of the TCR Russia meeting at the Smolensk Ring (September 5-6). The pair recorded a strong qualifying in the very competitive series – where all five Hyundai Motorsport customers made it into the second part of the session where pole position is decided – and then were able to remain at the front through the opening laps, before starting to build an advantage.
In Race 2 Klim Gavrilov recovered from a poor opening lap to take third position to once more put a Hyundai customer on the podium. |
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i30 N TCR take both wins for Imola weekend
i30 N TCR customers enjoyed a very strong weekend in TCR Italy at Imola (August 28-30), winning both contests at the track. PMA Motorsport driver Felice Jelmini dominated Race 1 from pole position to take his first win in the series, and at the wheel of an i30 N TCR. He was followed home by Damiano Reduzzi in his Trico WRT-run entry.
Reduzzi then took his second victory for 2020 in Race 2 after driving up the order after starting only sixth in a typically dramatic event for the series. He was joined on the podium by North Macedonian driver Igor Stefanovski, who was making his first start in the series this season. He was on the pace from the start of the weekend – only missing out on a potential Race 1 podium to a small problem. However, in Race 2 he was able to capitalize on the speed of the car to finish third.
Also moving forward in Race 2 was Ettore Carminati. A poor qualifying put him only 16th on the grid but he was able carve up the order to cross the line sixth. |
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BRC drivers take podiums from Zolder weekend
BRC Racing Team driver Maťo Homola and Daniel Nagy took a podium each from the TCR Europe weekend at Zolder (September 11-13). Homola made an excellent start to Race 1 to take the lead, but was shuffled back in the following laps, eventually taking third place from the race.
The result was repeated by Customer Racing Junior Driver Nagy in Race 2, adding the podium to the fourth place he took in the first contest. Homola, meanwhile, drove a strong defensive race to take eighth place where was followed over the line by Target Competition drivers John Filippi and Jessica Bäckman to complete the top ten. |
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Double TCR UK victory maintains strong start to the season
Lewis Kent took victory in both TCR UK contests at Silverstone (September 12-13) to maintain his 100% in the series this year.
He rebounded from a relatively poor qualifying to finish second overall in Race 1, beaten only by a car not competing for TCR UK points. Rewarded for his finish with a front row start Kent took the lead in Race 2 and went to claim an outright victory. |
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Hyundai Motorsport Customer Racing Operations Leader Andrew Johns said: “Our customers, both for the i20 R5 and in TCR series, have recorded a lot of very strong results in recent weeks. For Jari Huttunen, second in WRC 3 at Rally Estonia is a great result on stages that represent the pinnacle of world rallying, while the second wins of the year in Portugal and Poland have put customers working with Hyundai subsidiaries in good positions in their national series. For TCR we already have another i30 N TCR driver as a title winner this year with several races left in the season, and the Veloster N TCR continues to be the car to beat in IMSA competition.”
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