Mikel Azcona wins Zhejiang finale as title rivals collide

Mikel Azcona improved his title chances significantly by winning the final FIA TCR World Tour race of the weekend at Zhejiang while title rival Santiago Urrutia suffered a puncture after contact between the two.

Hyundai driver Norbert Michelisz started from pole position on the dry track but was beaten into the first corner by Geely’s Urrutia after light contact between the two.

Azcona managed to sneak past his team-mate into second place as well heading into Turn 2 while action kicked off behind them.

There seemed to be light contact between Race 2 winner Aurélien Comte and Thed Björk in the fight for fourth, with Comte going off track briefly.

And things went from bad to worse for the SP Competition driver as he hit his team-mate Jean-Karl Vernay when he rejoined the track.

Vernay slid off the track into the gravel trap, triggering the safety car while the stewards handed Comte a drive-through penalty.

The race resumed on lap four and Comte was back on the attack, trying to reclaim fourth place from Björk.

But the attempt instead enabled Björk’s Cyan Racing team-mates Ma Qing Hua and Yann Ehrlacher to demote him down to seventh place.

The fight for the lead between title rivals Urrutia and Azcona kicked off on lap six as the Uruguayan driver got a poor exit onto the main straight.

This allowed Azcona to get up alongside and a late defensive move by Urrutia saw hard contact between the two and a left-rear puncture for the Geely driver.

Urrutia was forced to pit and dropped down to finish tenth while Azcona continued in the lead.

Björk then tried to pass Michelisz who had sneaked into second place during the kerfuffle, resulting in contact between the two.

Michelisz then defended second place hard from the Geely trio of Björk, Ma and Ehrlacher.

Ehrlacher made a desperate attempt to pass on the penultimate lap, resulting in front-end damage to his Geely while Michelisz managed to recover a slide to continue in second place.

Azcona won the race by just over a second ahead of team-mate Azcona, while Björk was let past for third place by Ehrlacher on the final lap.

Ma finished fifth while Comte recovered to sixth after his earlier penalty.

Lo Sze Ho came home in seventh ahead of Diego Moran who stopped just after the finishing line in a big cloud of smoke from his Honda.

Azcona’s win has increased his points lead to 33 points over Michelisz who has climbed back into second place as Urrutia drops to third, 39 points behind with just two races remaining of the 2026 season.

The field now heads to the streets of Macau for the Guia Race season finale on November 19-22.