Mikel Azcona admitted after winning race one that he ‘loves the old school’ nature of the Jarama circuit after taking the win in the opening TCR Europe race of the day.
Azcona, driving the Volcano Motorsport CUPRA TCR, made it three straight wins on his return to the championship, and he was delighted to keep the streak going.
“It was a perfect race for me because I started from the pole and I won the with a five-second gap,” commented the Spaniard.
“It seemed very comfortable, but I had to stay focused and try not to do mistakes in these very difficult conditions.”
“To be honest I love this old school track and I love to compete in these conditions so I think we should drive more here because it’s amazing.”
Despite taking a fine win, the 2018 champion did survive a few scary moments, none more so than at the first safety car restart where he lost the rear end of the car.
“I lost the car in some moments, but I could control it,” added Azcona.
“Then I told myself: OK, Mikel relax a little bit you have a big gap to the second car.
“It wasn’t easy to keep the tyres warm during the two safety car interventions and I had to look especially after the rear ones.
“After the first restart I lost the car and I almost went onto the gravel, but afterwards I could manage it.”
Azcona took the dominating victory ahead of Timmy Clairet and Mat’o Homola, both of whom couldn’t match the pace of the WTCR regular.
For race two later this afternoon, the Spaniard will line up on the grid in tenth for the final race of the season after the reverse grid takes effect.
The final race of the TCR Europe season gets underway shortly at 14:10 CET (13:10 GMT).