Photo: Tamara Aller

Santiago Urrutia keeps it cool to claim pole position at Vila Real

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Cyan Racing’s Santiago Urrutia made the most of the very hot conditions at Vila Real to score his first WTCR pole position of the year on a circuit which is new to the Uruguayan driver, beating his team-mate and title rival Yann Ehrlaher.

Urrutia had a strong Q3 lap with his Lynk & Co 03 TCR to set a best lap time of 1.59.626.

Ehrlacher was the last driver to try his luck in the Q3, setting a purple first sector, but losing in the second sector, qualifying in second place 0.049 seconds behind his team-mate.

Münnich Motorsport made the most of a tough weekend with maximum compensation weight to take Néstor Girolami to Q3, with the Argentinean qualifying in third position with a lap time of 1:59.879.

Ma Qing Hua finished in fourth place with a lap time of 1:59.880, only one thousandth of a second slower than Girolami.

Norbert Michelisz made it through to the Q3, being the first to try the single lap shootout. The Hungarian completed his lap with a time of 2:00.101, qualifying in fifth position for Race 1’s grid.

Mehdi Bennani (Audi RS 3 LMS) was again the fastest Audi driver to qualify in sixth place, ahead of Zengo Motorsport’s Rob Huff (Cupra Leon Competición).

Mikel Azcona suffered damage during the Q1 after hitting a kerb, with the BRC Motorsport mechanics franticly repairing the Elantra N TCR in order to progress to the next session. The Spaniard would qualify in eighth place.

Attila Tassi drove a solid session to qualify in ninth place with his Honda Civic Type R TCR, ahead of Yvan Muller (Lynk & Co 03 TCR), in tenth place to claim the reverse grid pole position.

Comtoyou Racing’s Gilles Magnus complained about engine issues in his Audi RS 3 LMS to qualify in 11th place for both races’ grids.

Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk suffered with little time on the track in the Q2 due to a driveshaft repair, qualifying in 12th place.

Local hero Tiago Monteiro, driving a Honda Civic Type R TCR of Engstler Motorsport, could only manage to be 13th, missing the cut to go to Q2 by just 42 thousandths of a second, followed by Esteban Guerrieri (Honda), Nathanäel Berthon (Audi), Tom Coronel (Audi) and Dániel Nagy (Cupra).

After the qualifying session at Vila Real Azcona leads the championship with 129 points, 27 ahead of Ehrlacher and with Urrutia one further point behind.

The WTCR returns to the track on Sunday afternoon for Race 1 at 13:10 WEST (CEST -1 hour).