Rodrigo Baptista and Mikel Azcona take action-packed Pool A victories

Rodrigo Baptista and Mikel Azcona secured the opening two wins of the PURE ETCR weekend at Motorland Aragon after a pair of action-packed Round 1 races for the Pool A drivers.

In the opening battle, Tom Chilton made a poor start when the gates opened which allowed Rodrigo Baptista to jump into the lead from the middle of the grid ahead of Jordi Gené.

Chilton then used some of his power up to fight back onto the rear of the two cars ahead – clearing Gené with ease and then tying to make a a move on Baptista for the lead.

The Alfa Romeo driver held on through the opening two laps with the three cars running together, with Gené using noticeably less of his allotted extra power than the two cars ahead.

On lap three, Baptista got out of shape which allowed Chilton to close right in, and he briefly got into the lead only to run deep into the following corner, which meant Baptista jumped back ahead.

With extra power in reserve, Gené blasted past the two cars ahead as the three cars went side-by-side over the line to take the lead of the race starting lap four with Chilton slotting back into second, but the Spaniard then outbraked himself to give Chilton the advantage.

Starting the final lap, the leading pair made contact as Baptista watched on behind, with the Cupra emerging from the opening corner ahead of Chilton’s Hyundai.

Baptista however had kept some power in reserve and when the pair ahead used up their additional boost, the Alfa Romeo driver charged to the front; cleared Chilton for second and then grabbing the win from Gené on the run to the line.

“I couldn’t hear on the radio about the power up for the others so I kept some for the end and it worked,” Baptista said. “We are here to put on a good show and I think we did that with that race.”

“It was exciting for me but we just missed out,” Gené added. “I tried to use the power in the middle of the race but had to use more than expected to pass Chilton. I had two seconds left but it wasn’t enough – I needed three!”

Battle 2 featured a more even start but Mikel Azcona and Augusto Farfus both hit the power up early to blast clear of Coletti – only for the three drivers to then make an error that saw them forced to take the wrong route through the opening lap.

Back onto the correct path from lap two onwards, Farfus held the lead from Azcona, with Coletti dropping back from the leading pair but having used to noticeably less of his additional power.

A wild moment saw the Alfa Romeo drop out of contention for the win which came down to a battle between Farfus and Azcona over the final two laps, with Azcona closing onto the rear of the Hyundai heading into the hairpin.

Azcona got alongside Farfus with the pair both running off track as they went side-by-side into the final lap, with Azcona slipping ahead into turn one. Farfus tried to respond as the final lap played through but it was the Spaniard who opened his weekend with victory.

“I couldn’t be happier,” Azcona said. “The team was telling me how many seconds I had left and we managed to make the move at the hairpin. He pushed me wide and I pushed him wide but it was a good battle. There is still a long way to go.”

“We tried to cover each other on the first lap and we all made the same mistake – so no-one got an advantage,” Farfus added. “Azcona had better pace late on but this is the least important race of the weekend and the big points are to come.”

The opening two Battles for Pool B will take place later this afternoon after the cars have been recharged.