Mattias Ekström and John Filippi share Pool B PURE ETCR wins at Aragon

Mattias Ekström and John Filippi prevailed in a pair of closely-contested Pool B PURE ETCR  battles at MotorLand Aragon.

Ekström lined up alongside Zengo Motorsport X team-mate Dániel Nagy and Hyundai’s Jean-Karl Vernay, with the pair of Cupras leaping off the line as Vernay faltered with a troublesome traction control issue.

Nagy and Ekström gapped Vernay on the opening lap, but the former made a small mistake which allowed Ekström to grab the lead on the back straight on the second of five laps.

Now onto the back of the leading duo, Vernay pressurised Nagy into a mistake on the third lap to snatch second, before nearly going off himself as the Frenchman dipped a wheel into the gravel trap towards the end of the lap.

Vernay, in clear air, began to close in on Ekström and produced a spirited fightback on the final lap to reduce the margin to the Swede to just a tenth of a second by the finish.

Post-race, Ekström said: “I was a little bit surprised at the start, I thought Jean-Karl would be there fighting. I’m not sure what happened but then, later, he came back and it was really close towards the end.

“I thought at the start, with Dani, ‘hurry up, my friend, hurry up!’ because I could see Jean-Karl was coming so I saved a bit of energy for that.”

Disappointed by his tardy start, Vernay was ambivalent with his result.

“We can be happy with the balance of the car, but I don’t understand the traction control at the start,” he said. “It reminds me of the problems we had earlier in the year so I’m not happy with that. I think the race pace was slightly better than the two other guys and, unfortunately, I’m not happy because I think we had a great car and great performance. But because of an issue like this, we finish second.”

Luca Filippi led the second battle off the line from Alfa Romeo team-mate Oliver Webb, as the Hyundai of John Filippi again suffered a poor start with a suspected traction control issue.

Webb ran second early on and tried to sneak up the inside of his team-mate on the opening lap, but had to wait until halfway around the second lap to make the move stick.

Much like Vernay in the opening race, John Filippi mounted a third-lap push and got past Luca Filippi at Turn 1 before finding his way around Webb before the end of the lap to seize the lead.

Filippi stormed clear of the pair of Giulias, which began to squabble amongst each other on the penultimate lap, which Webb pulling out all the stops to get by Luca Filippi at the hairpin.

Webb then closed up on John Filippi halfway around the final lap, but couldn’t quite get close enough to take the battle victory, despite a last-corner wobble from the Hyundai.

Speaking about his race, Webb said: “[The race was] a little bit disappointing, I got the fastest lap and I was fastest in practice this morning so the pace is there.

“We’re just trying to the strategy right with the power-ups; it looked pretty good in the middle of the race and I think I just saved a little bit too much at the end.”