Photo: TCR

Santiago Urrutia keeps Lynk & Co on top in Uruguay

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Santiago Urrutia continued Lynk & Co’s domination of the Uruguayan leg of the FIA TCR World Tour by setting the fastest time in the second practice session at El Pinar.

Competing on home soil, Urrutia set a best time of 1m27.119, which was just over a tenth of a second quicker than team-mate Yann Ehrlacher, while the third Lynk & Co of Ma Qing Hua was third.

Urrutia was on the pace all session, which was red flagged twice for two separate incidents for Guilherme Reischl’s Cupra León Competición.

Following the morning downpour which delayed opening practice by nearly half an hour, the rain did stay away for second practice, but was held on a predominantly wet track.

Urrutia’s first effort was enough to take the top spot by just under half a second and, after a strong opener from Björk, improved again with a 1m27.690. Ma was fourth ahead of Ehrlacher with the best Hyundai of Girolami in fifth.

Having caused a red flag in the morning session, Norbert Michelisz took his BRC Squadra Corse Hyundai Elantra into third shortly before Reischl instigated the first stoppage of the afternoon.

Upon resumption, Ehrlacher moved to the top of the pile, pipping Urrutia by just over a tenth of a second as Girolami improved to third.

A second off for Reischl halted proceedings again, but once it got going again, Urrutia struck late with his final effort to emerge as the fastest driver.

Behind Ma, Girolami ended up fourth fastest, ahead of Michelisz while Galid Osman was a strong sixth in his Cupra.

Björk was the slowest of the Lynk & Cos in seventh, a second off the pace and just ahead of Mikel Azcona and Dušan Borković.

Esteban Guerrieri completed the top 10, after which the competition is as tight as ever with just four-tenths of a second splitting Marco Butti in 11th and Pedro Cardoso in 17th.

Next up is qualifying for the opening race of the TCR World Tour weekend, which is scheduled to take place at 15:05 local time (20:05 CEST).