Urrutia edges team-mate Ehrlacher in delayed Aragón practice
Lynk & Co Cyan Racing got their title ambitions off to a strong start in opening practice for the WTCR finale at MotorLand Aragón, locking out the top two positions as Santiago Urrutia headed championship leader Yann Ehrlacher.
Practice was postponed by two and a half hours due to heavy fog on Saturday morning, but could eventually get underway and run to its full duration of 45 minutes.
Times tumbled throughout the session as grip levels picked up on the cold and soggy track, which remained cloaked in mist, with Jean-Karl Vernay, Attila Tassi, Yvan Muller and Thed Björk all taking turns at the top of the timesheets before Urrutia laid down the ultimate hammer with a 2:14.148 best.
That was enough to edge Cyan Racing team-mate Ehrlacher by a mere 0.037s, as the latter bids to maintain his championship lead and win his first world touring car title.
Vernay held on to take third for Team Mulsanne Alfa Romeo, while home star Mikel Azcona got his weekend at home off to a strong start in fourth.
Both Vernay and Azcona won races at MotorLand Aragón during WTCR’s previous visit to the track two weeks ago.
Just behind, Muller and Björk ensured Cyan Racing had plenty to smile about with all four cars in the top six, the Swedish team holding an early upper hand on main title rivals Münnich Motorsport.
The Honda-affiliated team had Tassi as its best-placed driver in P8, while championship contender Esteban Guerrieri could only manage 16th, 1.7s down on Urrutia.
As always, however, the field is split in terms of the amount of new tyres used – especially in a session in which some initially headed out on wets.
Luca Filippi caused the first Full Course Yellow caution of the event when he spun at Turn 7 in the early stages, beaching his Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR in the gravel trap.
The marshals swiftly attended to Filippi’s trapped car, however, and the Italian – racing in wild card status this weekend – was able to resume.
The second wild card entrant, José Manuel Sapag, also ran into trouble after striking a tyre stack in the new chicane added on the back straight for this weekend. Sapag incurred damage to the front right of his Target Competition-run Hyundai i30 N TCR, dropping debris at the site and triggering a second FCY interruption.
Coming up next is Free Practice 2, which has been rescheduled for 13.30-14.00 CET following the delays this morning. Qualifying, however, remains unaffected and is slated to take place in its original time slot at 15.00 CET.
