Azcona scores shock first victory of the year in the rain at Zhuzhou
Mikel Azcona scored his first win of the 2024 Kumho FIA TCR World Tour in style at the Zhuzhou International Circuit, in a dry-to-wet race in which he passed all three Cyan Racing Lynk & Co cars ahead of him, while Esteban Guerrieri managed to get up to second place dropping the early leader Thed Björk to third.
Rain began to fall lightly before the start, but it wasn’t heavy enough to warrant a change to wet tyres. Santiago Urrutia led the way from the pole, but being out of title contention, he let teammate Björk through into the lead before T1. Yann Ehrlacher then also overtook Urrutia who was also passed by Azcona.
Azcona began to apply pressure to Ehrlacher for second place before the race was suspended behind the safety car following a collision between two of TCR China’s competitors Lo Sze Ho and Jamie Lai Jing Wen at T1, with both cars stopping on track.
When the race resumed, Marco Butti came into the pits to switch to wet tyres, while the field carried on with slicks. Azcona passed Ehrlacher for second at T3, while behind John Filippi’s Audi clipped Martin Xie Xin Zhe’s Honda into a slide dropping him two positions. Xie made a dive on David Zhu Dai Wei at T5, but they made contact; Zhu was pushed wide while Xie spun and was collected by teammate David Deng Bao Wei. This resulted in the #55 Honda stranded at T8 and so the safety car was deployed again, but before that Guerrieri had got ahead of Urrutia for fourth place. While behind the safety car, the rain intensified, but when the race restarted on lap 13 the majority of the field was still on slick tyres.
With greater pace in the wet, Azcona overtook Björk for the lead before T5, while Jason Zhang Zhi Qiang, the TCR China leader after Xie’s troubles, overtook his countryman Ma Qing Hua at T10. On lap 14, Guerrieri made a pass on both Ehrlacher and Björk to snatch second at T3, but Azcona had now built a comfortable margin and was safe out front. With the rain still falling, Butti became the one to watch as he was scything through the field, breaking into the top ten with two laps to go; he continued to overtake cars, finally passing Norbert Michelisz for sixth on the final lap.
Azcona held on to win the race ahead of Guerrieri and Björk who has closed to 15 points from Michelisz in the standings, while Guerrieri is just one point behind him.
Zhang won the TCR China ahead of Martin Cao Hong Wei, with Andy Yan Cheuk Wai completing the podium. Zhang therefore extended his lead over Cao to 12 points, while Xie fell to 47 points away.
The second race will get underway at 14:00 local time tomorrow (08:00 CEST), with Néstor Girolami starting from pole position and Butti on P2.
Zhuzhou – Race 1
- Mikel Azcona (BRC Hyundai Squadra Corse, Hyundai Elantra N), 18 laps
- Esteban Guerrieri (GOAT Racing, Honda Civic Type R FL5), 7.062
- Thed Björk (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03 FL), 8.441
Championship points – TCR World Tour
- N. Michelisz, 262 pts; 2. T. Björk, 247; 3. E. Guerrieri 246
Championship points – TCR China
- J. Zhang Z.Q., 282 pts; 2. M. Xie X.Z., 175; 3. M. Cao H.W. 175
Picture: WSC/Jun Qian Motorsport
