Mikel Azcona wins again in a chaotic second race 2 at Spa

Mikel Azcona played the same trick as yesterday and so encored in TCR Europe at Spa-Francorchamps. On a damp track, the 2018 champion went again for a mixed tyre choice – slicks on the front and wets at the back – to win the second race with a comfortable margin. 
After a safety car intervention, Azcona was able to pass Mike Halder and Pepe Oriola one after the other, took the lead and ran away. Behind him it was chaos with a lot of place-swapping and clashing.
Eventually, Tom Coronel repeated his second place from yesterday’s Race 1, although his move to pass John Filippi in the final lap included a controversial contact. Teddy Clairet and Nicolas Baert were placed fourth and fifth. Meaning that five different brands filled the top positions: CUPRA, Honda, Hyundai, Peugeot and Audi.
A light rain began to fall as the cars left for the warmup lap and at the start Oriola was faster than pole sitter Mat’o Homola and took the lead, while Martin Ryba was hit at the Source and crashed into the wall. Moments later, Andreas Bäckman made contact with Dánile Nagy and spun at the Eau Rouge.
At the front, Oriola led from Mike Halder, while Homola tried to defend the third position from the assaults of Sami Taoufik, Daniel Lloyd and José Manuel Sapag. Soon Coronel, Azcona and Filippi joined the battle for P3 that raged for a couple of laps with the drivers swapping paints and positions until Taoufik hit the barriers at the chicane while trying to pass Homola and rejoined at the back of the field. Lloyd and Sapag came together and crashed as well; then Michelle Halder spun off and the safety car was deployed while Oriola was closely followed by Halder, Azcona, Filippi, Coronel, Mehdi Bennani, Homola, Teddy Clairet, Nagy and Jimmy Clairet.
Racing resumed in lap 7, Oriola and Halder began to lose positions. Azcona took the lead and pulled away, Filippi and Coronel began fighting for P2, while Teddy Clairet moved into P4. There was chaos behind with half-a-dozen of cars involved in tough battles and on lap 8, Julien Briché and Jimmy Clairet collided and retired.
Azcona claimed his second win of the weekend, while Coronel managed to pass Filippi for P2 after a couple of contacts. Teddy Clairet crossed the line in fourth place, Baert overtook Nagy for P5, Andreas Bäckman recovered from his early spin to finish seventh after passing Nicola Baldan in the final corner. Evgenii Leonov and Mike Halder rounded off the top-ten, while Bennani and Oriola had dropped to 11^th and 12^th.  
After the race, Bennani was handed a 30-second penalty for overtaking during the safety car intervention that dropped him from 11^th to 16^th and so in the standings, Halder is nowl leading by 26 points over Bennani, but Filippi and Baert have moved into P3 and P4, reducing their gaps to 35 and 41 points respectively.
The TCR Europe’s season finale will take place at Jarama on November 6^th/7^th. 

Race 2
1. Mikel Azcona (Volcano Motorsport, CUPRA TCR), 10 laps
2. Tom Coronel (Boutsen Ginion Racing, Honda Civic Type R), 4.293
3. John Filippi (Target Competition, Hyundai i30 N), 5.034
4. Teddy Clairet (Team Clairet Sport, Peugeot 308), 6.276
5. Nicolas Baert (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 14.203

Championship points
1. Mike Halder 242 pts; 2. Mehdi Bennani 216; 3. John Filippi 207

Picture: TCR Europe