WTCR Bahrain: Azcona closes in on title with race one win

Under the circuit’s spotlights, the Spaniard stroked to a lights-to-flag evening race victory from pole position as BRC Hyundai team-mate Norbert Michelisz rose from fourth on the grid to ride shotgun and deliver a 1-2 for the South Korean manufacturer.

The victory means Azcona now holds a commanding 53-point lead over Munnich Motorsport Honda driver Nestor Girolami, who was classified fourth. Nathanael Berthon beat him to the podium in his Comtoyou Audi, despite making a disastrous start from the front row.

“It was easy enough,” admitted Azcona. “I made a very good start, that was the key of the race.

“I was a bit afraid of Berthon because we had seen in the previous races the Audis are quick and strong, fast in the straight.

“But very quickly I saw he was in some kind of problem so there was free space for me, so from this point it was just to see what the conditions were like in the night.”

“I was very happy with my car,” said Michelisz. “In qualifying it was flawless which is one of the very rare occasions.

“As a driver you feel 100% in control and I’m very happy because it was steady progress.

“But more importantly I am very happy for the team and for Mikel. He deserved the race win.”

Mikel Azcona, BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse, Hyundai Elantra N TCR, Norbert Michelisz, BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse, Hyundai Elantra N TCR

Photo by: WTCR

Berthon recovered quickly from his poor start and was back up to fourth by the end of lap one. He closed in on Girolami, who was struggling for pace in a Honda carrying 40kg of compensation weight.

“Big mistake, it was my worst start of the year,” said Berthon. “I had a vibration which was appalling so I had to manage that.

“A lot of points lost. I would have loved to fight with Mikel. Congrats to him, no mistakes at all.

“We have to fight and come back stronger. We need to find some performance to come back at him.”

Tom Coronel further demoted Girolami on the road, but the Dutch Audi driver dropped to sixth because of a five-second penalty for nerfing Attila Tassi’s Engstler Honda off at the Turn 10 hairpin.

Nicky Catsburg scored an eventful fifth on his return to the WTCR for his first start in the series since 2020. Franco Girolami, younger brother of Nestor, pushed him into a spin at Turn 8 on lap one in an incident that also left Gilles Magnus’s Audi with heavy front-right damage.

Start action

Photo by: WTCR

Catsburg subsequently charged back up the order, pulling strong moves on Esteban Guerrieri and Mehdi Bennani to claim his hard-earned fifth.

Franco Girolami finished ninth on the road, but was relegated to the back of the field by a 10-second penalty for causing the first-lap collision.

The partially reversed-grid race two will take place in the heat of Saturday morning, with Bennani on pole position.

WTCR Bahrain - Race 1 results (15 laps)

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time
1	Mikel Azcona	Hyundai	15
2	Norbert Michelisz	Hyundai	15	1.955
3	Nathanael Berthon		15	3.443
4	Nestor Girolami	Honda	15	9.193
5	Nick Catsburg	Hyundai	15	10.291
6	Tom Coronel		15	11.336
7	Mehdi Bennani		15	12.247
8	Esteban Guerrieri	Honda	15	14.605
9	Attila Tassi	Honda	15	19.527
10	Viktor Davidovski		15	20.006
11	Daniel Nagy	CUPRA	15	20.503
12	Tiago Monteiro	Honda	15	26.817
13	Bence Boldizs	CUPRA	15	27.269
14	Franco Girolami		15	28.993
	Gilles Magnus		0	15 laps
View full results