Mikel Azcona hopeful of strong finish from front row

Mikel Azcona says he is hopeful of a strong finish to his World Touring Car Cup season after qualifying on the front row of the grid at the Sochi Autodrom.

The Spaniard endured a tough start to Saturday in Russia when an issue with the floor on his Cupra saw his opening practice session end early, with the Zengo Motorsport-run cars struggled for outright pace in the dry conditions.

Having shown improved pace in the wet second practice session however, Azcona went into qualifying feeling confident about pushing towards the sharp end and was a factor throughout as he worked his way through to Q2 and then grabbed a place in the five driver shoot-out for pole.

Although unable to beat Yvan Muller to top spot, Azcona will line up alongside the Frenchman on the front row as he bids to end a tough run of form that has seen him fail to score a top ten finish in the last two rounds.

“I’m really happy with qualifying and I love those conditions,” he said. “We struggled in FP1 as we had a technical issue so I didn’t get much experience of the track but luckily the rain came for FP2 which I think helped.

“I like the changing conditions we then had for qualifying and the car worked really well. We didn’t struggle like we did in the dry; we were trying to improve all the time and I did everything that I could behind the wheel.

“I feel good compared to the start of the day but the two races tomorrow are what is important. I’ve had two difficult weekends so I want to go for it and fight for podiums and maybe a win.”