Good start the key to Race 1 victory says Mikel Azcona
20 hours ago
Race 1 winner Mikel Azcona says his “really good start” was the key to securing victory in the opening race of the TCR Europe season at the Slovakiaring.
Azcona started on the outside of the front-row behind polesitter Tom Coronel, but made the most of too much wheelspin for the latter off the line to lead into the first corner.
Having built a three-second lead over Coronel’s team-mate Nicolas Baert, Azcona believes his race was a “safe race” despite having to combat overheating tyres in the second half.
Mehdi Bennani fends off stern Azcona challenge for maiden TCR Europe win at Slovakiaring
1 week ago
Reigning TCR Europe series champion Mehdi Bennani staved off a fierce challenge from Mikel Azcona to claim his, and the Hyundai Elantra’s first series race win in a thrilling second encounter at the Slovakiaring.
Bennani started from pole position for the reversed grid race two and led all the way, despite a superb charge from race one winner and 2018 champion Azcona in his Volcano Motorsport Cupra León Competición.
PSS Racing’s Franco Girolami completed the podium in third, just under three seconds adrift of Bennani, after fending off an equally entertaining battle with VRC-Team’s Klim Gavrilov.
Tom Coronel backed up his Friday practice pace to claim the first pole position of the TCR Europe series season following a closely fought qualifying session at the Slovakiaring. The Comtoyou Racing Audi RS 3 LMS driver set a time of 2:10.344 to end up just over a tenth of a second quicker than the … More »
Mikel Azcona fastest in FP1 as TCR Europe season kicks off
2 days ago
Volcano Motorsport’s Mikel Azcona kicked off the 2021 TCR Europe series season with the fastest time in the opening practice session at the Slovakiaring.
The 2018 champion, driving in the latest generation of the Cupra León Competición, set a best time of 2:27.774 to end up just over three-tenths of a second quicker than the PSS Racing Honda Civic Type-R TCR of Franco Girolami.
Girolami had been the early pacesetter as the track conditions evolved but Azcona was the man to beat come the end of the session, the Spaniard continuing his impressive end-of-season form from 2020 in the new campaign.
Photo: TCR Europe
Tom Coronel topped the second TCR Europe practice session in Slovakia, with a lap time of 2:23.063 – nearly half a second quicker than his nearest competitor.
The drivers were dealt a much wetter set of conditions in the second free practice session of the day, giving them their first taste of the new Hankook wet weather tyre. However, with much sunnier weather forecast for the rest of the weekend, the data gathered in this session is unlikely to be applicable to qualifying.
Niels Langeveld had been quickest for most of the afternoon, but was usurped by Coronel with just over five minutes to go. Nevertheless, Langeveld’s initial benchmark lap time remained good enough to ensure it was a 1-2 for the pair of Dutch drivers on this occasion.