Photo: WTCR

Santiago Urrutia tops delayed first Estoril practice

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Santiago Urrutia topped the first FIA World Touring Car Cup free practice session of the weekend at Estoril in Portugal. The start of the session was delayed by almost 1,5 hours due to an issue with the timing system.

The Lynk & Co Cyan Racing driver lapped the Portuguese circuit 1:44.876 seconds and was four tenths of a second faster than Honda driver Attila Tassi.

And Tassi headed two of his manufacturer colleagues Esteban Guerrieri in third and Néstor Girolami in fourth – six and eight tenths of a second behind respectively.

Points leader Jean-Karl Vernay was fastest of the Hyundai drivers in fifth position ahead of local hero Tiago Monteiro in sixth.

2019 champion Norbert Michelisz claimed position seven as Cupra driver Mikel Azcona, Lynk & Co driver Yvan Muller and Audi driver Frédéric Vervisch rounded off the top ten.

There were two incidents during the session as Thed Björk came to a halt on track after completing six laps due to an electrical issue and was towed back into the pits. The Cyan Racing driver was unable to take part in the remaining part of the session.

The second incident came as Target Competition driver Jessica Bäckman came close to hitting Muller in the pits. The Swede locked her brakes and stopped close to the crew of Muller, fortunately without hitting anyone or anything.

The second free practice session has been delayed by five minutes and will start at 12:05 local time.