Mikel Azcona admitted ‘it was an amazing race’ after he took a dramatic win in round nine of the TCR Europe series in Belgium after starting down in 13th.
Azcona made the most of a decision he and the Volcano Motorsport team made in qualifying that saw him miss out on Q2, as he completed a stunning drive through the field in mixed conditions in race one on Friday afternoon.
“It’s a fantastic result to win the first race of the weekend – it’s the best feeling!” said the 2018 TCR Europe champion.
“We made a decision in Qualifying that meant I started from P13, but we made absolutely the right decision with the tyres for the race.
“The conditions were very tricky; there was still a lot of water on the track and I had to get temperature into the front tyres because I took slicks on the front.
“On the first laps, I tried to get the heat into the tyres and it worked. It was an amazing race – good, clean overtakes and good moves from our side.”
The CUPRA TCR driver rounded out his fine performance with a stunning move on long-time race leader Tom Coronel at Blanchimont on the penultimate lap and afterwards he praised his rival after getting the better of him.
“Passing Tom for the lead was close; it was very fair, with no touching, but it was very close, so it was really good for the fans,” added the race winner.
“I was much faster than him, so he didn’t really close the door a lot, so I have to thank him for that.
“Let’s see the weather for tomorrow’s race, but if it’s dry I think we have another good chance.”
WTCR regular Azcona is making a one-off appearance this weekend and had also topped the second free practice session in wet conditions earlier on Friday.
Race two at Spa takes place tomorrow at 11:50 CEST (10:50 BST).