Mikel Azcona admits that last weekend’s FIA eTouring Car World Cup at Vallelunga was ‘the first time’ he felt very good with his car, after early season challenges.
Azcona claimed the ‘King of the Weekend’ accolade in Italy, his first event win of the season, after an unbeaten run throughout his qualifying, Quarter Final, Semi Final and Super Final runs.
The result has lifted the Hyundai driver up to third overall in the drivers’ standings, although he is still 67 points adrift of leader Adrien Tambay.
Battling high temperatures and the risk of tyre failures, Azcona admitted that it had been a challenging run to the win, with his closest competition coming from Romeo Ferraris’ Bruno Spengler.
“It wasn’t easy – it was a very tough weekend, especially the fights against Bruno in the Quarter Final and Semi Final,” said Azcona.
“The level of the drivers in this championship is very high.
“I feel very good. I really felt we made an improvement on the car – especially we [gained] a bit more pace on the qualifying run which is very good as I think we were missing a lot there in the previous weekends.
“Now, for the first time, I felt very good with the car, very nice, running it to the limit with control and good feeling. When you have this feeling, it is much easier.
“Starting from qualifying, being on the pole, and then having a very good pace during the races is very nice.
“But it’s very tough as well because with the high temperatures we were having many issues on the rear tyres, especially on the left, because this track is very demanding.
“We had to adapt ourselves and the car to survive the races, because otherwise we wouldn’t finish the races.
“The team has done an amazing job to give me the car to fight for the King of the Weekend. It’s an amazing feeling to be back here on the podium and winning the race weekend here in Vallelunga like last year.
“Congratulations to my team, BRC Squadra Corse and Hyundai Motorsport, because they are working a lot – they are working so hard every single day and I feel very happy for them.”