Santiago Urrutia turns pole into TCR World Tour victory on home soil
Santiago Urrutia converted pole into victory in the opening TCR World Tour race at El Pinar in Uruguay.
A strong launch meant Urrutia did not have to worry about the drivers behind on the opening lap, then he was able to build a big lead as his Cyan Racing team-mate Thed Björk battled with Comtoyou Racing’s Frédéric Vervisch and Squadra Martino’s Néstor Girolami.
He was 3.414 seconds clear after three laps, but thereon Björk started to reel him back in. It took until lap 10 to get the gap down to under two seconds, and he almost got within a second of Urrutia on lap 16 as the pair navigated lapped traffic.
But then the leader had a clear track again and he edged away once more before he backed off as he met the chequered flag to finish 0.479s ahead.
Vervisch passed Girolami for third on lap three and then spent the rest of the 20-lap race keeping him in his mirrors. He matched his best TCR World Tour result, which he has now achieved four times, by finishing third. The podium trio received their trophies from the Uruguayan president.
BRC Racing’s Norbert Michelisz did not quite have the pace to challenge those ahead and avoided being attacked by faster cars behind as TCR World Tour leader Yann Ehrlacher spent too much of the race sat in seventh trying to pass TCR South America runner Juan Manuel Casella.
Once he cleared him he closed in on Michelisz and gapped himself from Casella who dropped down the order and eventually finished 11th.
Comtoyou’s Rob Huff was a distant seventh, BRC’s Mikel Azcona was eighth and Cyan’s Ma Qing Hua had to make several overtakes to climb from 12th to ninth.
Ignacio Montenegro fought the cars ahead and behind before eventually settling in 10th, making him the highest-placed TCR South America driver. Neither a World Tour or a South America regular, Esteban Guerrieri marked his TCR return by finishing 12th and holding off Juan Angel Rosso in a photo finish.
Race 2 is at 12:55 local time/17:55 CEST today.
