Photo: TCR World Tour

Esteban Guerrieri beats Santiago Urrutia in first Interlagos race

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Esteban Guerrieri claimed a dominant first FIA TCR World Tour win of 2024, beating pole sitter Santiago Urrutia off the line in the first race of the weekend at Interlagos in Brazil.

Lynk & Co driver Urrutia tried his best on the first lap to get back past, going side-by-side with the Honda rival through Turn 6 to 8 but had to slot in behind.

The safety car was brought out at the end of the first lap as Volcano Motorsport driver John Filippi stalled his Audi on the grid and was unable to get away.

Later on the first lap, Honda driver Enrique Maglione stopped on track and had to be towed back into the pits.

The race resumed on lap four, with Guerrieri making a strong restart and pulled a couple of car lengths on Urrutia.

Hyundai driver Néstor Girolami found himself in trouble on the first lap of the restart, with Cyan Racing driver Thed Björk passing him for fifth.

And Girolami continued to drop down the order to ultimately finish 13th, having started fifth.

The sixth lap saw Girolami and Honda driver Dusan Borkovic coming together, with Borkovic trying to follow Ma Qing Hua past the Hyundai driver for seventh place.

But Borkovic drifted out wide with Girolami still on the outside of Turn 7, resulting in a spin into the infield for Borkovic who lost a couple of positions.

GOAT Racing driver Borkovic was able to fight back up and passed Girolami for ninth on lap ten as the Hyundai driver made a mistake and went wide.

There was further action on the final lap as former Formula E champion Nelson Piquet Jr tried an optimistic move on Toyota driver Matias Rossi and Girolami.

Piquet Jr hit Rossi’s rear right wheel, resulting in a spectacular spin into the barriers for the Toyota driver. Piquet Jr received a five-second penalty for the incident.

Guerrieri won the race by ten seconds ahead of Urrutia, with Honda driver Marco Butti closing in to finish third, just eight tenths behind the Uruguayan driver.

Yann Ehrlacher lost one place at the start to Butti and then drove a quiet race to fourth, scoring vital points as points leader Norbert Michelisz fought his way up from tenth to finish sixth behind Thed Björk.

Ma Qing Hua climbed two places to finish seventh for Lynk & Co Cyan Racing while Mikel Azcona (Hyundai) rounded off the top eight.

The second race of the weekend starts at 14:40 local time/19:40 CEST.