Björk penalised for incident with Azcona who hits out at driving standards

Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk has received a grid-drop penalty for his contact with BRC Motorsport’s Mikel Azcona the first FIA WTCR race at Vila Real, with the Spaniard criticising the Swedish driver.

“It was a very difficult race, above all when you are a target for certain drivers and they go for you to try to get you out of the track,” Azcona told TouringCarTimes.

“Knowing this could be the case, our target was to maintain eighth place and we managed that, but when you have Björk behind, his way of driving and edging me against the wall twice, sending me sideways in a place where he couldn’t overtake. It’s very difficult finishing a race in these conditions.”

Björk was found responsible for the incident with Azcona, with the stewards giving the Swede a three-place grid drop for the Race 2 grid, as well as two penalty points.

“In my opinion something should be done and the stewards should take some decisions,” Azcona said.

“We all drivers on the grid know how to drive like this, it’s not sporting nor clean. We all know he doesn’t have that much to lose, but I have a lot to lose because I’m leading the championship and this is not fair.

“I do feel disappointed in this sense, but also happy because we managed to survive the situation and achieve our target of maintaining the position in the race, as the car was fantastic and the team did a great strategy with the Joker lap,” concluded the Spaniard.

The Swede, who won the WTCC title in 2017, had some words of advice for the Spaniard.

“I will tell Mikel that, if he wants to be world champion, he has to think about how to compete against those who have nothing to lose,” Björk told TouringCarTimes.

“He has been such a rough guy on the race tracks… But, if he wants to be the champion, he has to think like a champion.”