Santiago Urrutia leads Geely 1-2 in first Chengdu race

Santiago Urrutia headed home a Geely Cyan Racing 1-2 in the first FIA TCR World Tour race at the Chengdu Tianfu International Circuit after pole-sitter Yann Ehrlacher let his team-mate past early on.

Ehrlacher started on pole and made a lighting start, while points leader Mikel Azcona got a poor getaway, dropping from second to fourth.

Ma Qing Hua meanwhile made a strong start from fifth on the grid to snatch third on the first lap.

Ehrlacher slowed down to let Urrutia past into the lead at the start of lap two.

Geely driver Ma found himself in a tough fight for third with Cupra driver Jean-Karl Vernay who had made a strong start from seventh on the grid.

The two made contact on lap six, with Ma dropping down to eighth place, a tussle which also allowed Thed Björk to pass Vernay’s team-mate Aurélien Comte for fifth.

Comte then fought back and hit Björk at the final corner on lap six which allowed Norbert Michelisz to pass them both for fifth.

Comte fell behind Björk and was handed a five-second penalty for the incident.

Comte was able to fight back past Björk and got right up on the rear bumper of Michelisz towards the end of the race. But the penalty dropped the French Cupra driver back to seventh place.

Urrutia won the race with Ehrlacher right behind in second place.

Vernay closed in on the duo, but did not get close enough to challenge for second place, settling for third, 3.5 seconds behind.

Azcona was a distant fourth ahead of Michelisz and Björk.

Ma, who was involved in the top three-fight initially, finished eighth ahead of Diego Moran and Lo Sze Ho.

Azcona heads the standings on 339 points while Urrutia has climbed back to second, 41 points adrift.

The second race of the weekend starts at 09:30 local time/03:30 CEST on Sunday.