Two thousands separate Santiago Urrutia and Norbert Michelisz in Zhuzhou testing
Santiago Urrutia beat Norbert Michelisz by 0.002 seconds in the private test sessions at the Zhuzhou International Circuit ahead of the joint FIA TCR World Tour and TCR China weekend.
Two sessions were held today, with the first one held in wet conditions which was topped by Néstor Girolami ahead of Urrutia and Ma Qing Hua.
Times dropped by ten seconds for the second and dry session where Lynk & Co Cyan Racing’s Urrutia posted a fastest lap time of 1:45.769.
The top three drivers were close as local hero Ma claimed third place, just 53 thousands of a second from his Cyan Racing team-mate.
Yann Ehrlacher and Thed Björk made it four Lynk & Cos in the top five, with Esteban Guerrieri in sixth place for GOAT Racing Honda, three tenths from the top time.
Guerrieri’s team-mate Dušan Borković was seventh fastest, 0.537 seconds off pace, ahead of Hyundai driver Mikel Azcona.
David Zhu was fastest of the local drivers in ninth place, nine tenths from the top time for Teamwork Motorsport as the TCR China drivers face a steep learning curve as they switch from their regular Michelin tyres to Kumho tyres for this weekend.
TCR World Tour returnee Rob Huff (Audi) rounded off the top ten for Volcano Motorsport, 0.977 seconds from Urrutia’s best time.
The first official free practice session starts at 12:00 local time/06:00 CEST on Friday.
