Aurélien Comte is second in the standings after winning the second race at Vallelunga, holding at bay the rival CUPRA Leon VZ TCR of Franco Girolami, and the SP Compétition driver says the new CUPRA is much more to his liking, after having raced the previous generation CUPRA in the TCR Italy championship last season.

Comte made quick progress to move from eighth to the lead of the race in just three laps in the new car, which only made its TCR debut last weekend.

“I made a very good start and managed my tyres and that was it, it was a very good race," said Comte. “Franco and I had the same pace, so my engineer kept me informed about the gap in the final laps."

On his first impressions of the new CUPRA, after leading both practice sessions at Vallelunga before scoring victory in Race 2 and a second place finish in Race 1, Comte added:

“I have a really good feeling with this car, it fits my driving style much better than the old car. All the cars I’ve driven are very different, so it’s difficult to compare, but this car has a very different philosophy, and I quite like it.

“I’m second in the championship, but there’s still some way to go in the so it’s important to score good points every time.”

Returning to the TCR Europe series after a year away, Franco Girolami says he hit all his weekend's targets with the five-point lead over Comte.

“It feels very good. We were focussed on scoring as many points as possible and did it, and we leave the second race in first position in the championship, and that was my goal," explained Girolami.

“At the start of the race I struggled with the front-end of the car, but we tried to race hard in the beginning and I used most of the life of the tyres, but we still managed to finish P2.

“Next is Zolder, it’s a new circuit for me, so we have to train a lot in the simulator, we’ll prepare, with my team-mate Viktor (Davidovski) and the team. We’ll have to see what the compensation weight is for Zolder, but I’m 100% sure the team will do an amazing job.”