Pool FURIOUS drivers Adrian Tambay and Mikel Azcona had glorious starts to their Sundays in Sachsenring for the final day of the 2022 FIA ETCR eTouring Car World Cup with a win apiece in their respective Pool FURIOUS Semi Finals as the temperatures increased at the superb Saxony circuit.
Tambay kept his perfect record thus far this weekend intact with a win in Pool FURIOUS Semi Final One for CUPRA EKS, largely without incident, save for a late lunge from Luca Filippi in his Romeo Ferraris at the start of the final lap. Filippi tried the inside at T1, and whilst the mind was willing, the grip was not there and a gravel trap awaited the Italian, race over a lap early. Filippi presence in the first FURIOUS Semi Final was courtesy of a post-race time penalty for Hyundai Motorsport N’s Mikel Azcona, for his move on Filippi in Saturday’s Quarter Final.
Filippi had proviously emerged on top from his battle with Hyundai Motorsport N’s Norbert Michelisz through the first corners, and thereafter all three drove a controlled race, keeping Power Up stored for final lap deployment. Michelisz tried his best and kept the pressure on Tambay, who would take the win by 0.350secs.
Pool FURIOUS Semi Final One Results
Adrien Tambay CUPRA EKS
Another stressful race to be honest because I had to push from the beginning and I could not really ever breathe until even the last lap. Well Luca had a big manoevre He’s actually a friend so I didn’t expect that but luckily I kept my eyes open and I opened he lost the control and then I managed to have enough power Up to finish and, and keep missionaries behind. So, so far so good. Just a few labs to still cover and yeah, stress level is still still there.
Norbert Michelisz Hyundai Motorsport N
That wasn’t an easy race – we had more or less an equal start and then I tried to secure second. My target was to cover the Romeo Ferrari but he was clever enough to send me to the inside and then he went to the outside, and I had the Cupra in front of me so was difficult. On the exit we touched a little bit and because of the hit, my steering was a bit bent. Nevertheless, even with a not 100% car the pace seemed to be quite good so happy about that. The possibility to win the Super Final is still there, and will be the aim.
Luca Filippi Romeo Ferraris
It was the last lap and in some places I was catching Adrien so I felt I had an opportunity and I went for it. Basically, I think it was the right time and the right place to do it. I wanted to make a clean and nice pass, as sometimes when you are a little bit undecided it’s when you get caught in potential touching. I wanted to avoid that as he’s fighting for the championship, so I didn’t want to make anything silly. But by doing that, I just went a little bit too far in making a very definite move and I locked the tyres. Probably the outcome looks worse than actually the little mistake I made but I’m definitely happy about the pace and happy about the fact that I wanted to try to get this win. I did feel a little silly in the gravel, but the show must go on!
Pool FURIOUS Semi Final Two
The second FURIOUS Semi Final saw another thrilling race. Jordi Gené made a great start from P3 on the grid in the CUPRA EKS, but pole-sitter Bruno Spengler mastered T1 in his Romeo Ferraris with the penalised Azcona – who had started betwixt the two thanks to his 10-second penalty for his robust pass creation on Luca Filippi in FURIOUS Quarter Final Two yesterday – soon chasing down the Giulia ETCR up ahead.
Spengler in his quest for glory took more sips from the cup of Power Up in the early laps, storing up problems for later, but in the end it wasn’t a pure lack of Power Up response, but rather a good ol’ fashioned offline mistake out of T7 which gifted Azcona an opportunity into T8 which he didn’t need to be asked twice about. Azcona slipped through on the second lap, with Spengler left to rue too much oversteer as per his feedback from every session thus far in Sachsering.
Azcona was now on cruise mode, with plenty of Power Up in his flask and Gené setting about Spengler. The CUPRA EKS driver had an abundance of Power UP relative to Spengler for the final lap, and he deployed it well. Spengler tried to make his Giulia ETC as wide as possible and lurched to the left and then to the right to keep Gené behind out of the final corner, but a photo-finish showed that it was Gené in P2 by a mere 0.001secs!
Pool FURIOUS Semi Final Two Results
Mikel Azcona Hyundai Motorsport N
It was a very good race, first ‘first place’ of the weekend, and we scored some good points. It’s not the position we wanted to be in, in the second group of the Semi Final, but it is down to something that happened yesterday and in the end I’m very glad and very proud of the team. Finally we took the win and it was a very good race.
Jordi Gené CUPRA EKS
Happy for the race. I think we did a very good show. It was very exciting. It’s a good way to recover from yesterday because yesterday everything went wrong; I had a puncture, I had problems in qualifying. So I was not very happy and my morale was not very high. But today with this race, I’m very happy the car was working quite well to start with a few issues of setup. And the race was very exciting. A lot of work from the radio that helped me a lot and and I did today I did well, so I’m very happy for the team and everything looks good. Let’s see if I can repeat it on the final.
Bruno Spengler Romeo Ferraris
I was struggling a lot with rear rear axle grip which is the reason why I struggled a bit with pace. Jordi was really quick behind me with more Power Up than me and it was so close. I heard him commenting that he was not happy that I changed direction, but what should I do? Go to the side and maybe let him past? I think he would have done the same thing in my position. So anyway, we got to the final. I think even Miko saw it from right behind me as he said they were struggling with a lot of sliding from the rear axle. So we have to understand why. And try to correct that for the final and the parent should be good normally. I think our performance generally is good.
Title Standings Post Pool FURIOUS Semi Finals
King of the Weekend Standings Post Pool FURIOUS Semi Finals
Pool FURIOUS DHL Super Final Grid
