Mikel Azcona secures sensational double win at Spa-Francorchamps in TCR Europe

Mikel Azcona made the most of slippery conditions to drive through the field to take his second win of the weekend in the TCR Europe series at Spa-Francorchamps.

Azcona, who incredibly repeated his performance at the circuit from 12 months ago after starting race two down in seventh, took the win after pulling away from Teddy Clairet in the second half of the race.

The result means the Spainard has now remarkably won three of the six races he has competed in within the championship this season and he therefore extends his championship lead as a result when drop scores are taken into account.

Race two started under the safety car after rainfall hit the Belgian circuit just moments before the race was set to get underway, with drivers therefore being forced to make a tricky tyre choice.

Many of the leading contenders at the front of the grid – including both Azcona and Clairet – elected to have a split tyre choice featuring slicks on the front and wets on the rear, with the track being both wet and dry at different parts of the circuit.

With Azcona out in front and simply too fast for anyone to catch, another man to benefit from the weather conditions was Janik Motorsport’s Mat’o Homola, after electing to use a full slick combination on the ever-changing circuit.

Homola, who had yesterday been set to fight for a strong performance before he was given a drive through penalty due to completing two laps in the build up to Friday’s race, ended the second race of the weekend in second place.

The Slovakian driver started race two in eighth but the second half of the race saw him move through the pack ahead and he managed to catch Clairet on the final lap and overtook at the Campus chicane as his slick tyres became more optimised for the drying track.

The opening laps saw pole sitter Klim Gavrilov head for the pitlane after deciding to start the race on full wets, but it soon proved to be the wrong decision.

He only lasted one lap after the safety car returned to the pitlane and he was forced to head to the pits and out of contention for a strong result as he decided to move to full slicks.

Fourth in race two went to Brutal Fish Racing’s Isidro Callejas who held off the Sebastien Loeb Racing duo of Niels Langeveld and Sami Taoufik in race two.

Franco Girolami and Nicolas Baert had an entertaining battle in the second half of the race for seventh, with the Argentinian managing to hold off the ComToYou Racing man despite the Belgian trying a move up the inside at the Les Combes chicane on several occasions.

The top 10 in race two was completed by reigning champion Mehdi Bennani and another of the ComToYou Racing drivers Tom Coronel.

Jimmy Clairet took 11^th ahead of the recovering Gavrilov, while Jack Young – who had pitted to change to slicks under the safety car in a bid to try and force his way through the field – could only manage 13^th in race two.

The next round of the 2021 TCR Europe championship is set to take place at the Nürburgring between September 3-5.

Race results

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP	GD
1	96			Mikel AZCONA	Volcano Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	10	28:36.154	2:35.765	7
2	70			Mat’o HOMOLA	Janík Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	10	1.812	2:34.526	8
3	20			Teddy CLAIRET	Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	10	2.412	2:36.694	3
4	26			Isidro CALLEJAS	Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	10	12.186	2:37.416	2
5	10			Niels LANGEVELD	Sébastien Loeb Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	10	12.693	2:36.960	12
6	25			Sami TAOUFIK	Sébastien Loeb Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	10	17.178	2:37.577	6
7	72			Franco GIROLAMI	PSS Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	10	21.817	2:38.947	4
8	8			Nicolas BAERT	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	10	22.348	2:37.735	5
9	250			Mehdi BENNANI	Sébastien Loeb Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	10	22.778	2:38.971	9
10	32			Tom CORONEL	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	10	26.019	2:38.103	11
11	21			Jimmy CLAIRET	Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	10	48.206	2:34.883	15
12	14			Klim GAVRILOV	VRC-Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	10	1:01.152	2:33.318	1
13	62			Jack YOUNG	Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	10	1:19.441	2:37.750	19
14	162			Dušan BORKOVIĆ	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	10	1:22.508	2:44.476	16
15	17			Martin RYBA	Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	10	2:29.812	2:42.036	14
16	24			Jáchym GALÁŠ	Janík Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	10	2:32.663	2:35.867	17
17	66			Gilles COLOMBANI	Team Clairet Sport	CUPRA TCR	10	2:55.165	2:55.642	18
R	44			Felice JELMINI	Sébastien Loeb Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	2	DNF	3:23.989	10
R	16			Evgenii LEONOV	Volcano Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	2	DNF	3:38.983	13
NS	77			Sylvain PUSSIER	Team Clairet Sport	CUPRA TCR	–	DNS	N/A	–