PWR RACING GRABS THIRD WTCR PODIUM
PWR Racing just wrapped up the fourth round of FIA WTCR competition in the Netherlands, scoring the third podium in four weekends. PWR Racing young gun, Mikel Azcona, qualified his CUPRA TCR P5 for the first race and managed to fight his way on to the Zandvoort podium. Taking his second P3 finish of the season he now sits fifth in the driver standings. Meanwhile PWR and CUPRA Racing keeps defending fourth in the team championship.
– Feels like I keep saying this, but I’m once again thrilled by our pace and the results we’re getting. It’s a very tough championship and to be fifth among the drivers and fourth in the team standings is just fantastic. The team is doing a great job, let’s not forget we’re newcomers. The next one at Nürburgring will be a special one, it’s a track like no other on the calendar and we’ve only had very limited running. I’m excited to see what we can do, says Mikel Azcona, PWR Racing WTCR driver.
Strong saturday effort from the team
The weekend started off in great fashion with Azcona and Haglöf taking P4 and P5 in the first friday practice session. They both kept form for the saturday qualifying and put themselves P5 and P8 on the grid. However, Haglöf having a five place grid penalty from the last race at Slovakia Ring he had to start P13 for the race. Mikel quickly moved up to third and held on to the podium across the finish line while Haglöf got himself a 12:th place, meaning a double points finish for the CUPRA team.
Azcona scoring important championship points
In sundays qualifying Mikel was only three thousands of a second from making in to the top 5 Q3 shootout. A super strong effort anyway that had him start P5 and P6 in the two races. Starting positions that he later converted into a P5 and a P6 finish. Haglöf didn’t enjoy the same flow and finished P22 in Q1, less than half a second from making it in to Q2 over the 1:45 long lap. From P22 on the grid it was always a hard task to get into the points, a task that proved impossible.
– First off, congrats to Mikel for his second WTCR podium, a great result for the whole team! I’m pleased with my friday and saturday efforts in this very tough field. If not for the grid penalty that we carried from Slovakia, I think we would have made the top ten in the first race. But P12 was okay and important points. The quali on sunday did not go as planned and from P22 on the grid for both races, you can’t really do much on a track like this. However, I’m happy about the teams progress and look forward to the next weekend at Nürburgring, it’ll be a crazy one, says Daniel Haglöf, PWR Racing WTCR driver and CEO.