Photo: TCR World Tour

Mikel Azcona charges to victory in rain and safety car affected first Zhuzhou race

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Mikel Azcona charged through to claim victory in a rain and safety car affected first FIA TCR World Tour race of the weekend at Zhuzhou in China.

A light rain started just before the race which increased in strength as the race progressed, with the majority of the field starting on slicks.

BRC Hyundai’s Azcona started fourth but got a strong getaway and soon worked his way up towards Thed Björk who had claimed the lead from his pole-sitting Cyan Racing team-mate Santiago Urrutia during the first lap.

A first safety car session came following contact between Lo Sze Ho and Lai Jing Wen, with both drivers left stranded on track with damaged cars.

As the race resumed, Björk headed the field ahead of Cyan Racing team-mate Yann Ehrlacher in second and Azcona in third.

Azcona managed to out-brake Ehrlacher for second place just before the safety car was deployed for a second time.

This time it was Honda driver Martin Xie who was left stranded on track due to an incident.

As the safety car headed back in, the rain further increased in strength and Azcona was able to get past Björk easily for the lead as the Hyundai driver clearly had the pace on his Lynk & Co rival.

GOAT Racing’s Esteban Guerrieri (Honda) then managed to get past both Ehrlacher and Björk for second place.

Björk was briefly able to repass Guerrieri for second place with just two laps left, only for the Honda driver to reclaim the position.

Guerrieri’s team-mate Marco Butti opted to pit early in the race for rain tyres, a gamle which paid off.

The young Italian driver fought his way up from the back of the field to finish sixth, having passed points leader Norbert Michelisz right at the end of the race.

Azcona won the race in style, crossing the finishing line seven seconds ahead of Guerrieri and eight seconds ahead of Björk.

Cyan Racing team-mates Ehrlacher and Urrutia finished fourth and fifth ahead of Butti, Michelisz and Néstor Girolami.

TCR World Tour returnee Rob Huff finished ninth ahead of TCR China race winner Jason Zhang who rounded off the top ten.

Michelisz is still in the lead of the drivers’ championship on 262 points while Björk has moved up to second place on 247 points, one more than Guerrieri in third. Azcona is fourth on 237 points and Ehrlacher fifth on 229 points.

The second race of the weekend starts at 14:00 local time/08:00 CEST on Sunday when Girolami will start from the reversed grid pole position ahead of Butti and Ma Qing Hua.