Photo: Cyan Racing

Santiago Urrutia wins safety car interrupted first Bathurst race

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Santiago Urrutia won the first joint TCR World Tour and TCR Australia race of the weekend at the Mount Panorama Circuit from second place on the grid.

Pole sitter Tony D’Alberto bogged down at the start and dropped down to third place behind Cyan Racing driver Urrutia and Wall Racing team-mate Néstor Girolami.

TCR World Tour title contender Yann Ehrlacher made a strong start from seventh on the grid to fifth by the end of the first lap ahead of Lynk 6 Co team-mate Thed Björk.

BRC Hyundai driver Mikel Azcona was close to D’Alberto in the first part of the race in the fight for third place.

But Azcona’s race ended on lap six as he suffered a front-right puncture and forced the safety car on track as he failed to limp his Elantra N TCR back to the pits.

The safety car headed back into the pits with two laps remaining of the race.

The restart saw Comtoyou Racing driver Rob Huff making an important move on TCR Australia title contender Josh Buchan to snatch sixth place.

Huff’s team-mate Frédéric Vervisch soon followed past to grab seventh place.

Urrutia won the race by just under a second ahead of Girolami, with Wall Racing making it two Hondas on the podium in third.

Ehrlacher took an important fourth place finish ahead of Björk, Huff and Vervisch.

HMO Hyundai driver Buchan finished eighth ahead of GRM Peugeot driver Aaron Cameron.

Former TCR World Tour points leader Norbert Michelisz claimed tenth place and the reversed grid pole position for Race 2.

Tenth place also meant that Michelisz dropped down to third place in the standings, with Huff moving up into the lead on 342 points, six points ahead of Ehrlacher and seven ahead of Michelisz.

The second race of the Bathurst weekend starts at 12:50 local time/02:50 CET on Sunday.