Santiago Urrutia happy despite slashed points lead in France

Santiago Urrutia saw his FIA TCR World Tour points lead slashed from 20 ahead of the race weekend in Paul Ricard to just six points after, but was despite that happy.

“It was overall a good weekend, especially considering the 40kg, I’m very happy,” said Urrutia to TouringCarTimes.

The Ururguayan faced a tough weekend with 40kg of compensation weight ahead of Paul Ricard following his triple win in Valencia last month, as well as a BoP increase of 10kg, a power reduction and a ten-place grid penalty.

“After the penalty from the FIA to start from the back, it was a bit tough,” said Urrutia.

“But I managed to finish P6 in the first race, a very good result.”

The second race saw him fighting hard for the final podium position with championship rival Mikel Azcona, a fight he came out on top from.

“I had a good start in Race 2 and was up to second place, but it was a bit too tough to keep with the 40 kilos,” said Urrutia.

“But we managed to keep the championship lead in both the drivers’ and teams’ championship which is very important.”

There is no rest for Urrutia and the rest of the FIA TCR World Tour field as Vila Real awaits next weekend.

“I think I will have 20kg of compensation weight in Vila Real, so we’ve got to do a very good qualifying,” said Urrutia.

“We have also got the joker laps, so the team strategy will be very important. We will be looking for a strong weekend.”

The Geely Cyan Racing driver heads Azcona by six points with three of the eight race weekends of 2026 completed.