Mikel Azcona the one to beat as TCR Europe heads to Paul Ricard
The second round of the 2021 TCR Europe series heads to the Paul Ricard circuit in the south of France this weekend with Volcano Motorsport’s Mikel Azcona leading the points after a near-perfect weekend in Slovakia.
The 2018 champion currently leads the standings on 84 points, 22 clear of defending champion Mehdi Bennani (Sébastien Loeb Racing) after recording a victory and second place on the opening weekend at the Slovakiaring.
For his part, Bennani – who went without a single race win in his title-winning campaign last year – took his first ever TCR Europe win in Slovakia, staving off Azcona in a frenetic battle in Race 2 to prevail by just over half a second.
It was also the first TCR Europe victory for the new Hyundai Elantra N TCR on its maiden series outing.
Just two points adrift of Bennani in the standings is the Zengo Motorsport Cupra of Dániel Nagy, who returned to his 2018 form in Slovakia and could be a threat this weekend in France.
Comtoyou Racing’s Audi duo of Nicolas Baert and Tom Coronel will be hoping to transfer their promising opening weekend pace into better results after a bittersweet first event of the season.
Baert is fourth in the points following a solid second place finish to Azcona in Race 1, but the Belgian struggled for pace in the second race and could only manage eighth.
Team-mate Coronel was the man to beat all weekend prior to Race, having topped opening practice and claimed pole position on a track where he had previously won three times in seven visits. A poor start cost Coronel the lead at the start and he couldn’t maintain the speed throughout the 10-lap affair and eventually finished fifth. He followed that up with sixth in Race 2 but it was a weekend which could have produced far more for the popular Dutchman.
Predicting which car and which driver will be in the plum seat for success at the high-speed Paul Ricard circuit is difficult, with Honda having the edge last season through victories for Dan Lloyd and Mike Halder. The previous year, the wins were shared between Mat’o Homola’s Hyundai and Julien Briché’s Peugeot, while Dušan Borković recorded a double victory for Hyundai in 2018.
The weekend kicks off with the first free practice session which is scheduled to start on Friday 28th May at 09:00 CEST. The second session will take place later in the day, at 16:40. Both sessions will last 30 minutes.
Then it’s onto qualifying on Saturday 29th May, which is due to start at 10:00, with Race 1 scheduled to start at 16:45. Sunday’s final race of the weekend is scheduled to begin at 12:40.
