Santiago Urrutia leads Lynk & Co Cyan Racing 1-2-3 in Valencia qualifying

Cyan Racing dominated the FIA TCR World Tour qualifying session at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia, with Santiago Urrutia claiming the pole position ahead of Yann Ehrlacher and Ma Qing Hua.

The Lynk & Cos of Cyan Racing were on top in the early stages of the Q1 session which was held in warm summer conditions, with Ma and Ehrlacher leading the charts, but Hyundai’s Mikel Azcona stole the top spot at the end of his first run.

The top two drivers of the standings had a Q1 tough session, with points leader Esteban Guerrieri (Honda) only managing the 14th fastest time in Q1 and Thed Björk (Lynk & Co) missing Q2 by 24 thousands of a second in eleventh place.

Urrutia rose to the top spot of the Q2 session after his first flying lap, followed by Ehrlacher and BRC Racing driver Norbert Michelisz, with guest driver Eric Gené of Monlau Motorsport in fourth position.

Urrutia’s time remained fastest throughout the session and the Uruguayan driver scored the pole position with a time of 1:40.037, followed by team-mates Ehrlacher and Ma Qing Hua, 0.033 and 0.145 seconds behind respectively.

Top Honda driver Ignacio Montenegro claimed fourth position, two-tenths adrift.

Reigning champion Michelisz claimed fifth as the fastest Hyundai driver, 0.327 seconds behind the pole position, followed by Gené and Butti.

Azcona, who was fastest in Q1, qualified in eighth place, with Cupra driver Aurélien Comte and Néstor Girolami completing the top ten, eight-tenths off the pace.

The FIA TCR World Tour field returns to the track at 16:50 CEST on Saturday afternoon for Race 1.