Mikel Azcona tops red flag interrupted opening Jarama practice

Mikel Azcona continued his fine return to the TCR Europe series by taking the fastest time in the opening Jarama practice session that was halted twice by red flags.

2018 TCR Europe champion Azcona – who took a memorable double win last time out at Spa – set a 1 minute 38.884 time that was over three tenths of a second quicker than anybody else on Friday morning.

The session was paused twice after firstly series debutant Fernando Navarrete and then Brutal Fish Racing’s Marin Ryba both had to have their cars recovered from the circuit.

Azcona was the first of the leading drivers to set a fast time and at one point was over a second quicker than the rest of the field.

The delays therefore caused the rest of the field to set fast times late on, with Azcona’s nearest challenger being the Peugeot of Teddy Clairet.

Just 0.071 seconds split him and Mat’o Homola who took third, while the highest placed championship contender was Mehdi Bennani who finished fourth in the ComToYou Racing Audi.

The Moroccan driver currently sits 26 points adrift of leader Mike Halder going into the final rounds of the season this weekend.

Fifth was the second of the Team Clairet Sport Peugeot’s of Jimmy Clairet, who finished ahead of Daniel Nagy who is still in with a chance of taking the title if things go his way in Spain.

Jessica Bäckman meanwhile took seventh ahead of the impressive series debutant Franco Girolami.

The younger brother of WTCR regular Néstor this weekend is driving a PSS Racing Team Honda Civic and he finished ahead of Pepe Oriola and Nicola Baert who completed the top 10.

Series leader Mike Halder could only manage 15^th quickest, while John Filippi, currently third in the title standings was 13^th fastest and one place behind championship rival Dan Lloyd set the 12^th quickest time.

The second free practices session of the weekend at Jarama takes place at 13:10 CEST (12:10 BST).

Session results

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	96	Mikel AZCONA		Volcano Motorsport	CUPRA TCR	13	1:38.884	0.000
2	20	Teddy CLAIRET		Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	13	1:39.218	0.334
3	70	Mat’o HOMOLA		BRC Racing Team	Hyundai i30 N TCR	15	1:39.289	0.405
4	250	Mehdi BENNANI		Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	13	1:39.294	0.410
5	21	Jimmy CLAIRET		Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	11	1:39.320	0.436
6	99	Dániel NAGY		BRC Racing Team	Hyundai i30 N TCR	14	1:39.368	0.484
7	26	Jessica BÄCKMAN		Target Competition	Hyundai i30 N TCR	14	1:39.534	0.650
8	72	Franco GIROLAMI		PSS Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	14	1:39.597	0.713
9	74	Pepe ORIOLA		Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	13	1:39.733	0.849
10	8	Nicolas BAERT		Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	14	1:39.741	0.857
11	19	Andreas BÄCKMAN		Target Competition	Hyundai i30 N TCR	14	1:39.752	0.868
12	123	Daniel LLOYD		Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	14	1:39.866	0.982
13	27	John FILIPPI		Target Competition	Hyundai i30 N TCR	13	1:39.892	1.008
14	33	José Manuel SAPAG		Target Competition	Hyundai i30 N TCR	14	1:40.003	1.119
15	7	Mike HALDER		Profi Car Team Halder	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	12	1:40.042	1.158
16	31	Tom CORONEL		Boutsen Ginion Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	14	1:40.151	1.267
17	24	Julien BRICHÉ		JSB Compétition	Peugeot 308 TCR	15	1:40.170	1.286
18	16	Evgenii LEONOV		Volcano Motorsport	CUPRA TCR	14	1:40.384	1.500
19	199	Fernando NAVARRETE		SMC Junior Motorsport	Peugeot 308 TCR	15	1:41.102	2.218
20	10	Viktor DAVIDOVSKI		PSS Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	14	1:41.749	2.865
21	25	Sami TAOUFIK		Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	9	1:42.383	3.499
22	13	Enrique HERNANDO		SMC Junior Motorsport	Peugeot 308 TCR	8	1:44.131	5.247
23	17	Martin RYBA		Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	8	1:47.400	8.516
24	53	Michelle HALDER		Profi Car Team Halder	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	6	1:53.789	14.905