Santiago Urrutia takes TCR World Tour pole on home soil in Uruguay

Cyan Racing’s Santiago Urrutia has put his Lynk & Co 03 TCR on pole for his home round of the TCR World Tour at El Pinar in Uruguay.

The start of qualifying was delayed by several minutes, with the 30-car field (primarily consisting of TCR South America drivers) split into two groups for Q1.

BRC Racing’s Mikel Azcona was Group A’s early pacesetter, committing to a run of several laps while five drivers pitted straight away after their sighting lap on a very dusty track and Damian Finsechi and Michel Bonnin did not appear at all.

Azcona got the pace down to 1:20.887 before pitting, with Juan Manuel Casella a distant second a quarter of the way into the 20 minutes of track action.

The drivers who had only done a sighting lap returned to track after that, and TCR World Tour points leader Yann Ehrlacher went second fastest – but 0.851 seconds off Azcona’s pace – with his first flying lap.

His Cyan team-mate Ma Qing Hua then set a 1:21.000, and on his next lap Ehrlacher got within 0.039s of the pace while Néstor Girolami also lapped sub-1:21.

There was lots of competition for fifth place, and Hua usurped Azcona by 0.016s after 10 minutes while the latter sat in the pits.

Girolami knocked 0.061s off the pace with five minutes to go, and a minute later Ehrlacher went to the top with a 1:20.433. Azcona improved twice during another longer run late in the session and got within 0.102s of Ehrlacher, with third and fourth place also unchanged.

Comtoyou Racing’s Frédéric Vervisch won the battle for fifth, and was just 0.004s slower than Hua, but it was sixth place that was more important as that was the last driver in the group to progress to Q2. Girolami’s Squadra Martino team-mate Casella achieved the feat, and on his local track too.

The road-sweeping by Group A made it easier for Group B, where Azcona’s team-mate Norbert Michelisz was initially the driver to beat. Urrutia then set a stellar 1:20.373 six minutes in, and that time looked difficult to beat.

Urrutia’s team-mate Thed Björk got within half a second of the pace, and Comtoyou’s Rob Huff went third fastest with a sub-1:21 effort set nine minutes in. Michelisz improved but stayed in fourth, then had his fastest lap deleted.

Going into the second half of the group’s running Björk got the gap down to 0.221s, and with just over three minutes to go he went fastest by 0.126s while Michelisz improved to 1:20.544 in third.

Björk set the first sub-1:20 lap of the weekend next time by, and Urrutia finally improved with one-and-a-half minutes to go but only by 0.073s. After that Esteban Guerrieri set the lap that secured him fifth, and TCR South America leader Ignacio Montenegro booked his Q2 place with 20s remaining.

A 1:21.405 set after the chequered flag locked Galid Osman into seventh, meaning he will start Race 1 from 14th as he was slower than Juan Angel Rosso who was seventh fastest in Group A.

Q2 was shorter and less action-packed than Q1. Urrutia laid down a 1:20.116 benchmark that stood until he improved to 1:19.800 with one minute to go. Björk and Girolami set a 1:19.885 and 1:20.118 respectively after the finish to qualify second and third, which pushed Michelisz to fourth.

Vervisch and Huff set identical best laptimes, with Vervisch qualifying fifth on dint of setting his first, and Casella was the top TCR South America driver in seventh.

Ehrlacher and Ma completed the top 10, meaning Hua provisionally leads his team-mate on Race 2’s reversed-grid front row.

Race 1 starts at 09:10 local time/14:10 CEST on Sunday.