Santiago Urrutia has taken his second win of the Kumho FIA TCR World Tour weekend in Spain; the Uruguayan driver came through from eighth on the grid and moved into the lead late in the race when, once again, the race leader, this time Jenson Brickley, ran into trouble.
Julien Briché started from pole position but was beaten into the first corner by Sten-Dorian Piirimägi. Briché lost control of his car and hit Piirimägi, with both drivers running wide and allowing Brickley into the lead. Aurélien Comte was now second, while Urrutia was already up to third.
Urrutia made his way past Comte on lap 2 and set about chasing Brickley, before the safety car was called when the Audi cars of Mathieu Casalonga and Manuel Fernandes came together, with Fernandes’ car ending up in the gravel trap.
When the race resumed, Brickley remained in control, chased by Urrutia and Comte, with Ma Qing Hua behind, followed by Mikel Azcona and Norbert Michelisz who swapped positions, as the ballast-free Michelisz had more pace than his teammate.
Ehrlacher, after his engine change penalty was blasting through the order from 21st on the grid, and by lap 12 was up to tenth, chasing down the TCR Spain class leader Viktor Andersson. But then, as in yesterday’s race, he retired with a technical issue.
The final drama of the came at the start of lap 19, when Brickley’s car started bellowing smoke line with an apparent turbo issue and retired from the lead. This put Urrutia into the lead ahead of Comte and Ma, though Ma would later lose third due to a five-second penalty for track limits infringements, which saw Michelisz promoted to the podium.
Andersson finished eighth overall winning again both the ETS Guest Star Trophy and TCR Spain.
Urrutia has extended his lead to 15 points over his teammate Thed Björk and, as the highest scorer of the weekend so far, he is set to start from pole position in this afternoon’s final race that is scheduled for 16:40 CEST.
Race 2
- Santiago Urrutia (Geely Cyan Racing, Geely Preface), 22 laps
- Aurélien Comte (SP Compétition, CUPRA Leon VZ), 1.346
- Norbert Michelisz (BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse, Hyundai Elantra N EV), 1.624
ETS Guest Star Trophy:
Viktor Andersson (Monlau Motorsport, CUPRA Leon VZ)
Championship points
- S. Urrutia, 110 pts.; 2. T. Björk, 95; 3. M. Azcona, 89
Picture: WSC/Fastclick-Avensimages
