Mikel Azcona and Bebu Girolami battle for the last-ever WTCR crown at Jeddah
The Saudi Arabian circuit of Jeddah is host for the 2022 season finale and the last-ever FIA World Touring Car Cup race weekend, with BRC Racing Team’s Mikel Azcona and Münnich Motorsport’s Néstor Girolami in the fight for the drivers’ title.
Azcona (Hyundai Elantra N TCR) has comfortable 60-point gap over his rival, with 65 points in play at Jeddah.
“Of course, winning is always good, but my main target for this race is to score six more points than Bebu,” Azcona told TouringCarTimes. “This what we are aiming for, also coming to a high-speed circuit and with fast corners.
“We have a big lead in the title standings, which gives us an advantage. We know we will have ballast for the final weekend, but I think we will be good enough to fight for the top positions.”
The points gap means that Azcona has to suffer bad luck of astronomical proportions for Girolami to get ahead.
“We have to be realistic and say the title will be difficult to achieve, but I extremely proud that we have been able to take the fight to the final round of the season and we go into the weekend with the best expectations,” said Girolami, who won’t hold back on the track.
“We head to Jeddah believing there is every possibility to be in the battle for another victory, which would be a great way to end the season and to thank the team for their efforts.”
BRC’s Norbert Michelisz, who claimed his first podium and victory of the season at Bahrain, is currently fifth in the standings, but will be aiming to climb to third place in the drivers’ championship after a difficult season.
“We don’t really know the circuit, so there is very little information that we can gather beforehand, and this makes it tricky for the team to judge the right window in setting the car up,” the Hungarian explained. “We will do our best and I would like to repeat the weekend I had in Bahrain and finish the season on a high.”
The last-ever WTCR race will count with 15 entries, adding Saudi Arabian driver Ahmed Khaled BinKhanen, who will race with an Audi RS 3 LMS from Comtoyou Racing, whilst Franco Girolami, who enjoyed a successful series’ debut two weeks ago at Bahrain, will act as replacement for Mehdi Bennani in the Belgian team.
The 3.450-kilometre Jeddah street-circuit will host a WTCR event for the first time, with two floodlit night races. There will be a 60-minute test session on Friday for the drivers and teams to learn and adapt to the track. The usual WTCR track action will ensue on Saturday and Sunday.
WTCR Race of Saudi Arabia timetable
Friday 25th of November
19:30 – Testing
Saturday 26th of November
13:00 – Free practice 1
16:00 – Free practice 2
18:30 – Qualifying
Sunday 27th of November
19:45 – Race 1
22:15 – Race 2
Local times, CET -2 hours
