TCR World and life

17 With a string of four successive race victories at Spa and Nürburgring, Mikel Azcona has taken a giant step towards reclaiming the TCR Europe crown that was his in 2018. Although he was not the fastest in Qualifying, the Volcano Motorsport driver performed two lightning-fast starts and showed a superior race pace at the wheel of his CUPRA Leon Competición. In Belgium he passed the reigning champion Mehdi Bennani after the start of the first race and was never threatened (left), while Bennani focused on defending second position from Felice Jelmini. Azcona started from P7 in Race 2, and on a wet track powered past Isidro Callejas and Teddy Clairet. In both the German races, Azcona got the better of Franco Girolami, his closest rival in the title fight. In Race 1 he put the pressure on the Argentine for the whole race (below), and eventually passed him on the final lap with an impressive overtaking manoeuvre into the right-hander at Turn 4. There was barely a gap, but it was all the Spaniard needed. When Azcona and Girolami overtook the early leader Jack Young in the second race, a repeat of their great duel was expected, but that did not materialize and Azcona pulled away easily. After this streak of wins, the CUPRA driver leads the standings by 37 points over Girolami, while Niels Langeveld lies third with a gap of 88. Azcona’s position is made even stronger by the fact that this year the drivers have to drop their two weakest results. Having already missed the event at Zandvoort due to the clash with the PURE ETCR in Vallelunga, Azcona will not drop any points, unlike his rivals…