Santiago Urrutia tops Zolder morning test session

World Touring Car Cup rookie Santiago Urrutia enjoyed a promising start to his WTCR career by leading the way in the morning session of Thursday’s official pre-season test at Zolder.

Urrutia, who joins the Lynk & Co Cyan Racing effort this season after finishing third in TCR Europe last year, headed Münnich Motorsport Honda’s Attila Tassi by 0.142 seconds around the Belgian track, which hosts the season-opening round this weekend.

Third fastest was Tom Coronel, racing an Audi RS 3 LMS for local squad Comtoyou Racing.

Yvan Muller was the leading driver among last year’s title contenders in fourth, a quarter of a second down on team-mate Urrutia, with Néstor Girolami next up in fifth for Münnich Motorsport.

Belgian home hero Gilles Magnus looked determined out on track on his way to sixth on the timesheets for Comtoyou Racing, a tenth of a second ahead of Engstler Motorsport’s Nick Catsburg (Hyundai).

The third Comtoyou Audi of Nathanaël Berthon was eighth, with Jean-Karl Vernay going ninth in Team Mulsanne’s Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR and Yann Ehrlacher rounding out the top ten for Cyan Racing.

Reigning WTCR champion Norbert Michelisz was 12th aboard his Hyundai i30 N TCR, just behind Thed Björk in the fourth Lynk & Co 03 TCR.

2020 championship runner-up Esteban Guerrieri completed only three out laps across the three-hour session and failed to record a time.

There was one red flag in the session, triggered when Australian wild card Dylan O’Keeffe ground to a halt at the crest before the Villeneuve chicane. O’Keeffe’s all-new Renault Mégane RS TCR was eventually brought back to the pits where Vuković Motorsport attended to it.

Zengő Motorsport sat out the session with neither of their three CUPRA Leon Competición cars taking to the track.