Santiago Urrutia has taken his first victory in three years and moved into the lead of the standings after winning the first race of the Kumho FIA TCR World Tour weekend at Valencia, while front-runners Yann Ehrlacher and Mikel Azcona both ran into troubles.
Ehrlacher started from pole but was challenged by teammate Thed Björk into the first turn and ran wide, just missing the tyre stack. As he rejoined, Mikel Azcona moved into the lead, passing Urrutia down the inside at T1 before moving ahead of Ehrlacher into T2. The Spanish driver then led the way ahead of Ehrlacher, who was now back ahead of Urrutia, with Björk shuffled down to fourth after the first-corner drama.
Aurélien Comte had passed a slow-starting Norbert Michelisz for fifth, while Viktor Andersson had made a great start to go down the right-hand side of the track, passing Jimmy Clairet to move up to eighth behind Ma Qing Hua.
The race then settled down as Azcona built a small gap to the chasing trio of Geely cars. Ma, however, retired on lap 11, and that it was not the last drama for the team, as Ehrlacher’s car grinded to a halt five laps later, promoting Urrutia and Björk to second and third.
It was then Azcona’s turn to suffer misfortune, pulling into the pit lane at the end of lap 20 with a front-right puncture and allowing Urrutia to the lead. Urrutia and Björk made it to the finish, while Comte was third, taking his first podium result of the year. Behind him came Michelisz, just ahead of Andersson who was the winner in TCR Spain, as well as the recipient of the ETS Guest Star Trophy.
Ehrlacher had secured the fastest lap, which will promote him from tenth to ninth on the grid for tomorrow’s second race.
Urrutia’s victory moved the Uruguayan into a slender one-point lead over Björk, while Azcona dropped to third, nine points adrift.
The second race is scheduled for 11:55 CEST on Sunday morning.
Race 1
- Santiago Urrutia (Geely Cyan Racing, Geely Preface), 24 laps
- Thed Björk (Geely Cyan Racing, Geely Preface), 0.314
- Aurélien Comte (SP Compétition, CUPRA Leon VZ), 1.252
Fastest lap: 1:19.571, Yann Ehrlacher in lap 2
ETS Guest Star Trophy:
Viktor Andersson (Monlau Motorsport, CUPRA Leon VZ)
Championship points
- S. Urrutia, 80 pts.; 2. T. Björk, 79; 3. M. Azcona, 71
Picture: WSC/Fastclick-Avensimages
