Santiago Urrutia wins uneventful final race at Chengdu
Santiago Urrutia headed home a Geely Cyan Racing 1-2 with Yann Ehrlacher to gain valuable points on championship leader Mikel Azcona, who finished fourth, in an uneventful final FIA TCR World Tour race of the weekend at the Chengdu Tianfu International Circuit.
The Uruguayan driver started from pole and headed the field into the first corner as the lights went out, a position he kept throughout the race.
There was contact between Norbert Michelisz and Thed Björk during the opening lap which allowed Ma Qing Hua past both of them while Michelisz dropped down to eighth behind Björk.
The stewards announced that the incident would be investigated after the race.
Jean-Karl Vernay was let past by SP Competition team-mate and Race 2-winner Aurélien Comte at the start of lap seven.
Vernay gained slightly on Ehrlacher in second place, but did not get below two seconds of the reigning champion.
Urrutia won the race by a margin of 0.6 seconds ahead of Ehrlacher, while Vernay was a distant third, seven seconds behind.
BRC Hyundai’s Azcona managed to pass Comte for fourth on the last lap as the Cupra driver slowed down considerably.
Ma was close to Azcona initially but fell behind to finish sixth ahead of team-mate Björk and Hyundai driver Michelisz.
Azcona continues to lead the standings on 373 points, with Urrutia closing the gap to 23 points.
The next FIA TCR World Tour race weekend takes place at Zhejiang Circuit on October 23-25.
