Tarquini beats Azcona to win the first race in Aragón

Gabriele Tarquini made good use of the pole position on the reversed grid for WTCR’s Race 1 at MotorLand Aragón and claimed his first win of the season at the wheel of his BRC Squadra Corse Hyundai Elantra N. The Italian controlled Mikel Azcona’s CUPRA for the whole 10 laps and won by a margin of nearly two seconds, while Tom Coronel’s Audi completed the podium.
Tarquini made a perfect start from the pole and led from Azcona and Yann Ehrlacher. The two leaders managed to pull away from the rest of the field from the very beginning, while Ehrlacher tried to defend the third position from the assaults of Coronel.
In lap 3, Coronel overtook Ehrlacher who lost another position to Nathanaël Berthon in the following lap. Behind them there was a close fight between Norbert Michelisz, Thed Björk and Frédéric Vervisch who swapped the positions several times. 
Further down the order there were fights between Yvan Muller and Santiago Urrutia for P11 and between Rob Huff and Esteban Guerrieri for P14.
In lap 5, Michelisz and Vervisch moved ahead of Björk and began chasing Gilles Magnus for P6. In lap 6, Björk lost ninth to Jean-Karl Vernay.
During the final three laps, Tarquini was able to shake Azcona off and took the flag with a slim margin, while Berthon slowed down on the pit straight and lost third to Coronel; Ehrlacher successfully defended the fifth position ahead of Magnus, Michelisz and Vervisch.
In the championship standings, Vernay retained the leadership but on equal points with Ehrlacher.
Race 2 will follow at 13:15 local time (CEST), with Vervisch’s Audi on pole position. 

Aragón – Race 1
1. Gabriele Tarquini (BRC Squadra Corse, Hyundai Elantra N), 10 laps
2. Mikel Azcona (Zengő Motorsport, CUPRA Leon Competición), 1.880
3. Tom Coronel (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 8.455
4. Nathanaël Berthon (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 9.531
5. Yann Erlacher (Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03), 10.416

Championship points
1. JK. Vernay 70 pts; 2. Y. Ehrlacher 70; 3. Y. Muller 61 

Picture: WTCR/DPPI