Photo: ACI Sport

Mikel Azcona claims TCR Italy pole position at Imola

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Guest driver Mikel Azcona of Volcano Motorsport took the pole position for the fourth round of the 2021 TCR Italy season at Imola.

The session was red flagged after just seven minutes as Scuderia Vesuvio driver Sabatino di Mare (Cupra TCR DSG) crashed out, fortunately escaping unhurt.

Azcona quickly improved his lap time as the session resumed to 1:50.208, beating Aggressive Team’s Kevin Ceccon (Hyundai i30 N TCR) by 0.865 seconds.

The Spaniard’s team-mate Evgenii Leonov, also driving a Cupra Leon Competición, qualified in third place, 0.894 seconds off the pace.

Igor Stefanovski, driving a Hyundai i30 N TCR, made a last lap effort to climb up to fourth place, 0.978 seconds behind Azcona.

Championship leader Eric Brigliadori, driving an Audi RS 3 LMS of BF Motorsport, qualified in fifth place, 1.120 seconds off, followed by Volt Ruben (Honda Civic Type R TCR), 1.229 seconds adrift.

Target Competition drivers Nicola Baldan and Antti Buri finished in seventh and eighth positions, with the Italian reported to the stewards for an investigation after the session.

Scuderia del Girasole’s Salvatore Tavano finished ninth after dropping down the order as he was unable to manage a fast lap in the closing stages of the session.

Michele Imberti of Elite Motorsport, completed the top ten, 1.668 seconds from pole.

The start of Race 1 is scheduled for Saturday at 13:20 CEST.