Santiago Urrutia takes commanding Adria Race 1 win
Santiago Urrutia took a commanding win in the first WTCR race of the day at Adria International Raceway. The Lynk & Co driver headed the field home ahead of Comtoyou’s Tom Coronel, with Esteban Guerrieri completing the podium for Münnich Motorsport.
At the start Guerrieri got past pole sitter Urrutia, but that didn’t last a whole lap as the Lynk & Co driver attacked the Argentinian at the last corner and went by to never look back.
A little further back, as Hyundai’s Jean-Karl Vernay fought for position with Thed Björk in an eventful first lap, making contact and the Swede lost several places.
Championship contender Frédéric Vervisch appeared to struggle and Honda’s Nestor Girolami took advantage by overtaking the Audi on lap 4.
Shortly after, as Norbert Michelisz attacked points leader Yann Ehrlacher, but the Hyundai driver was overtaken by Rob Huff, who was charging through the field in his Cupra.
Vervisch and team-mate Gilles Magnus switched positions on lap 9, perhaps in a bid to let the latter drag his team-mate towards the front.
But the drama was to happen just behind them, as Vernay continued his charge through the field by overtaking Nathanaël Berthon for eighth. The Belgian fought back and the pair eventually made contact exiting Turn 5, which sent the Audi into the barriers and back in the pits for repairs.
More drama was to come however, as Tom Coronel showed impressive form behind Guerrieri and, after putting pressure on him, finally made his move on the outside of the last corner on lap ten.
The Dutchman then completed his move between Turn 1 and 2. The scrap allowed Michelisz and Yvan Muller to close in on the pair, which forced Guerrieri to defend and lose contact with Coronel.
On the last lap Gabriele Tarquini, in his final home weekend of his career, overtook Ehrlacher at Turn 1 to push him out of the top ten.
Urrutia won ahead of Coronel, with Guerrieri third in his Honda. Norbert Michelisz was fourth in his Hyundai ahead of Yvan Muller’s Lynk & Co 03 TCR.
Two more Audis were sixth and seventh, with Vervisch ahead of Magnus. Girolami drove an aggressive race to eventually finish eighth in his Civic TCR, ahead of Vernay, who pulled off a strong recovery, and Tarquini who completed the top ten.
Ehrlacher finished just outside the top ten, but he still leads the championship by 21 points over team-mate Urrutia and Honda rival Guerrieri. Vernay is a further three points behind, with Vervisch 30 points off the lead.
The second race starts at 12:15 CET.
