Santiago Urrutia makes it a double as Jenson Brickley retires from Race 2

Geely Cyan Racing’s Santiago Urrutia claimed his second consecutive FIA TCR World Tou victory of the weekend in Valencia after Jenson Brickley retired with a mechanical issue.

ALM Motorsport Honda driver Sten-Dorian Piirimagi got a better start than pole sitter Julien Briché as the lights went out and claimed the lead heading into Turn 1.

But the French Hyundai driver braked too late and hit the back of Piirimagi, causing them both to go wide and drop places, with Briché heading into the pits with front-end damage.

Honda driver Brickley inherited the lead ahead of Geely driver Urrutia who had just past Cupra driver Aurélien Comte for second place.

The safety car was called into action on lap four as Audi driver Manuel Fernandes spun off into the gravel after contact from behind by fellow Audi driver Samuel Chaligne.

The scraps in the opening stages had allowed Ma Qing Hua (Geely) to rise to fourth position ahead of the Hyundais of Mikel Azcona and Norbert Michelisz.

The race went green again on lap six, with Urrutia mounting the pressure on Brickley.

Further back, reigning champion Yann Ehrlacher, who had started the race from P21 on the grid after an engine change, was already up to tenth place on lap eleven and started to put pressure on Monlau Motorsport driver Viktor Andersson.

Michelisz was let past by Azcona for fifth position on lap 12 as Ma received a five-second time-penalty for a track limits infringement at Turn 1.

Ehrlacher retired to the pits at the end of lap 16, making it the second retirement for the reigning champion of the weekend.

Disaster then struck race leader Brickley, who had pulled clear of Urrutia, at the end of lap 18. Smoke started billowing out of the back of his Honda and he stopped at the pit exit.

This handed the lead to Urrutia ahead of Comte and Ma.

Urrutia won the race at the chequered flag, 1.4 seconds clear of Comte while Michelisz completed the podium. Ma dropped to fourth after his time-penalty was applied.

Azcona crossed the line in fifth position, followed by Thed Björk and Jimmy Clairet. Andersson finished in eighth place as the top TCR Spain driver, with Cupra driver Enzo Gianfratti and Hyundai driver Gabriele Covini completing the top ten.

Urrutia has now extended his lead in the championship to 110 points, 15 over Björk and 20 ahead of Azcona.

The third and final race for the FIA TCR World Tour field at Valencia starts at 16:40 CEST.