Photo: TCR World Tour

Santiago Urrutia: “We are now a bit closer to Mikel”

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Santiago Urrutia claimed an important win in the first FIA TCR World Tour race of the weekend at Chengdu, gaining on points leader Mikel Azcona who finished fourth.

Hyundai driver Azcona had qualified on pole despite carrying 40kg of compensation weight compared to pole-sitter Ehrlacher’s and Urrutia’s 0kg.

But the two Geely drivers got the jump on the Hyundai driver who fell down to eighth at the start.

“At the start it was quite tricky, but I made a better start than Azcona so I could directly jump to P2 and then I got the help from Yann, as he let me go,” said Urrutia.

Ehrlacher then handed the lead to Urrutia, who is best placed in the points between the two, and the duo headed the field comfortably for the remainder of the race.

“It was just a team order, as we want the best for Geely Cyan Racing. We scored the maximum points in the race and we are now a bit closer to Mikel in the drivers’ championship,” said Urrutia.

“Then we controlled the race from P1 and P2. The car was working really well, so I thank the whole team and also Yann.”

Urrutia has climbed to second place in the drivers’ championship, trailing Azcona by 41 points.