Mikel Azcona scores CUPRA’s second pole in a row at Most

Mikel Azcona has claimed his first pole position of the 2021 WTCR season at the Most circuit in the Czech Republic. After claiming pole, the Spaniard now jets off to Spain to compete in qualifying and the first race of the TCR Europe series, on a busy double-duty weekend.
The Zengő Motorsport driver showed good pace throughout qualifying, but the CUPRA driver found close competition from the Hondas, Hyundais, and Lynk & Cos, with Esteban Guerrieri topping Q1 in his Münnich Motorsport Honda Civic, and Jean-Karl Vernay topping Q2 in his Engstler-run Hyundai Elantra.
There were a few surprise falls in Q1, with the Audis of Tom Coronel and Gilles Magnus both missing the cut, with Magnus stopping on circuit which saw the circuit red-flagged on Coronel’s fastest lap.
Second in the championship Santiago Urrutia also failed to make it through in his Cyan Racing Lynk & Co, qualifying a lowly 15th, while Rob Huff also missed the cut due to traffic, with the Hungaroring pole-sitter knocked out of the top twelve in the final seconds due to a late improvement by BRC Hyundai driver Gabriele Tarquini.
In Q2, it wasn’t until the final moments when the Q3 running order was decided, with last-minute improvements from Azcona, Vernay, and Guerrieri setting up the shootout, where they’d join championship leader Yann Ehrlacher’s Lynk & Co, and Norbert Michelisz’s Hyundai.
Tenth fastest in the session was wild card driver Petr Fulín, with the local driver rewarded with pole position for Race 1 due to the partially reversed grid.
In Q3, Vernay was out first but made a mistake on his run and was an easy target, with Azcona next out on track and going three-tenths faster.
GuerrierI, Ehrlacher, and then Michelisz all followed, and would all just fail to improve on Azcona’s time in the final sector, with Michelisz settling for second, just 91-thousandths behind Azcona, with Ehrlacher third, and Guerrieri fourth.
There’s no track activity for WTCR on Saturday, which allows both Azcona and Coronel to hop over to Spain to compete in qualifying and the first race of the TCR Europe series, before potentially returning on Sunday, depending upon their results in the European series.

Most – Qualifying
1:38.757 Mikel Azcona (Zengő Motorsport, CUPRA Leon Competición)
1:38.848 Norbert Michelisz (BRC Squadra Corse, Hyundai Elantra N)
1:38.887 Yann Ehrlacher (Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03)
1:38.890 Esteban Guerrieri (Münnich Motorsport, Honda Civic Type R) 
1:39.068 Jean-Karl Vernay (Team Engstler, Hyundai Elantra N)

Championship points
1. Y. Ehrlacher 106; 2. S. Urrutia 101; 3. JK. Vernay 89 

Picture: WTCR/DPPI