Photo: TCR South America

Urrutia elated but still eighth in TCR World Tour as title-fighting Michelisz rues lack of straightline speed

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Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher was able to extend his TCR World Tour lead with a return to the podium at El Pinar, although it was team-mate Santiago Urrutia who brought home the biggest points haul.

The Uruguayan starred on home soil, taking pole on Saturday and converting it into victory in race one on Sunday. It was his first pole and non-reversed grid win in over a year, having only competed part-time in last year’s World Touring Car Cup, and slashed his deficit to the top of the standings down to three quarters of what it had been.

Mid-weekend it was also announced he would stay at Cyan for 2024.

“It’s been an unbelievable weekend in Uruguay! Pole position, race one win for me and race two win for Ma [Qing Hua, his Cyan team-mate],” said Urrutia.

“I’m super happy and a big thank you to everyone who has made this possible, and especially to the crowd here that has been amazing.

“While this has been a great weekend, there are still many races to go and we need to keep working hard.”

Urrutia remains eighth in the standings, one position ahead of Hua who ended a four-year victory drought at touring car racing’s top level.

The top four positions in the standings went unchanged, with BRC Racing duo Norbert Michelisz and Mikel Azcona now one point closer together in the fight for second behind Ehrlacher.

Michelisz has dropped from 16 to 20 points behind Ehrlacher, with Azcona a further ten points back, after finishing sixth in race one and then seventh in race two after some feisty on-track battles.

“The atmosphere here has been fantastic all weekend, and it’s been great to compete with such a large grid, however on a short circuit it could get busy at times,” said Michelisz.

“On track it was a tough weekend for us, we didn’t seem to have good speed on the straights, and this was limiting us in qualifying and especially in the races to attack the cars at the front.

“I was unlucky in the second race, but racing can be like this sometimes. I’ve still scored some good points for the standings though.”