Michelisz credits “great teamwork” for growing TCR World Tour lead

BRC Racing’s Norbert Michelisz extended his TCR World Tour lead over the third round at Vallelunga, and credited his team-mate Mikel Azcona for contributing to his success.

Michelisz pipped Azcona to Race 1 pole in qualifying by 0.015 seconds, then beat him to victory on Sunday morning by 0.564s in a race where Michelisz did just enough to avoid being challenged for the lead at any point despite Azcona never being more than 0.8s away.

“The goal was achieved today to bring home the one-two in Race 1, which I am very happy about,” he said.

“It was tight after the start of Race 1 but Mikel and I left each other enough room, and after that I was pushing. Not only was Mikel behind me but the Audi behind him had good pace, so there was no choice but to go flatout. In the end, we did our best, and I’m delighted for Mikel and the team.”

Azcona and Michelisz lined up ninth and tenth on the reversed grid for Race 2, and Azcona made his way up to fourth after several instances of contact before losing the position on the final lap to a pass from Michelisz. That helped Michelisz bring his championship lead up to 25 points over Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher, having gone into the weekend three points ahead of him.

“It was a very important double podium for both the drivers’ and teams’ standings,” Michelisz added. “Coming through from tenth to fourth in Race 2 was tough, but once again great team work between myself and Mikel.”

Azcona himself rose from sixth to fourth in the standings, and is 39 points behind his team-mate. After Race 2 there was a five-second penalty given to SP Compétition’s Aurélien Comte, which dropped him from ninth to 12th in the race results.