Mikel Azcona and Santiago Urrutia locked into FIA TCR World Tour title fight

The FIA TCR World Tour weekend at Chengdu Tianfu International Circuit has made it even more evident that BRC Hyundai and Geely Cyan Racing have put their main efforts behind Mikel Azcona and Santiago Urrutia respectively for the drivers’ title fight.

Azcona came out on top from the last weekend during the Hyundai home race in South Korea with two wins and a seventh place, while Urrutia was the top scorer during the Geely home race this weekend with two wins and a third place.

“Thank you to my team, and to Yann. We’re really happy with this weekend,” said Urrutia.

“In terms of the championship and especially because we have collected a lot of points for the teams’ championship. We have worked so hard and capitalised everything, and Yann with the podiums has done a really good job.”

Urrutia carried 0kg of compensation weight this weekend while Azcona carried the maximum 40kg, which still saw the Hyundai driver claiming pole.

“With 40 kilos we had to push like crazy in qualifying, nailing every single lap, especially on this very technical track. I was very happy to be second after a mega lap and my Hyundai Elantra N TCR was unbelievable, super-impressive,” said Azcona.

The Spaniard headed into the Chinese weekend with a 49-point lead over Urrutia, a lead that has shrunk to 23 points with two race weekends remaining of the season.

“I’m super-happy to finish the race weekend scoring these valuable points with 40 kilos. Now it’s time to go for Zhejiang next weekend, but so far, so good,” said Azcona.

The pressure is on Urrutia to keep catching up to Azcona who will shed weight for the next race. But the Geely driver is refusing to say anything about his title hopes.

“I have nothing to say about the championship, as we still go race-by-race and there’s a lot of races to go,” said Urrutia.

The two will continue their battle next weekend at the Zhejiang Circuit in China.