Mikel Azcona says the first few corners of the first TCR Europe race at the Slovakiaring were eky to help him to score his fourth win in five races in the series.
Azcona jumped pole-sitter Tom Coronel at the start of Saturday’s first race in Slovakia, with the Spaniard holding an advantage of two seconds by the end of the first tour.
That enabled Azcona to control the rest of the race, allowing the Volcano Motorsport driver to take his fourth win out of the past five TCR Europe races.
It also marked the first win for the new CUPRA Leon Competición in the series, as Azcona won three races last year in the older-spec car.
“I’m very happy to start the season with a victory like this,” said Azcona. “I think the secret to my result was the start – I had a really good launch and I think I had less wheelspin than Tom in the first few metres away from the start line.
“I could take the inside line for the first corner and that was the key in my opinion. In the next few corners, I tried to push as much as possible and I was able to make a big gap.
“The key point was the first few corners. In the first corners I saw some overtakes from behind, and I used this opportunity to make a big gap.
“After two laps, I pushed hard again but I knew I had to look after the front tyres a little bit so I had to calm myself a little.
“I knew I had to watch the car behind me and control my pace to stay ahead of Nicolas and that’s what I did.”
Azcona will start from ninth on the grid for Sunday’s reversed grid second race, which is scheduled to get underway at 12:55 BST (13:55 CEST).