South Korean racer Junesung Park is second in the TCR Europe series’ drivers’ standings after a strong opening weekend of the season at Mugello, and hopes to continue to find more pace after two races featuring heavy battles in Italy.

Park made strong starts in both races to move up to second in the early running. In Race 1, he held the position to the finish, keeping behind Hyundai stablemate Gabriele Covini, while in Race 2 he was fighting to hold back Marco Butti’s CUPRA, eventually losing two positions after light contact, and then was later passed by Mike Halder’s Honda.

Park regained one of those positions when Butti was given a time penalty for the contact.

“It’s a wonderful start to the season, though I think that there’s a big gap between us and Alex (Ley)”, said Park.

“In the second race I had another really good start and was up to second, but my race pace wasn’t so good. For the next race, we need to work hard on the race pace. The next race is Spa, which was good for me last year, but I’ll also be getting some compensation weight so it won’t be easy, but I’ll do my best.