Santiago Urrutia dejected after opening Zhejiang race

Santiago Urrutia suffered a blow to his title hopes during the first FIA TCR World Tour race of the weekend at the Zhejiang Circuit as he was soundly beaten by title rival and points leader Mikel Azcona, as well as his Hyundai team-mate Norbert Michelisz.

Urrutia started third and managed to get ahead of Michelisz during the first lap. But the Geely driver was quickly left behind by Azcona and was soon reeled in by Michelisz who passed and pulled up a five-second gap.

“It was one of those days when you have to accept that you don’t have the pace,” said Urrutia.

“Hyundai were much better than us from qualifying through to the race, and they were quicker even with the extra weight. I did my best, but there was nothing more I could do.”

Urrutia carries 20kg more compensation weight than Azcona this weekend, something the wet weather more or less equalises.

Adding to the difficulties for Urrutia is that this is the first fully wet race for the Geely Cyan Racing team with the new Preface TCR model.

Azcona now heads Urrutia by 33 points with two heats remaining this weekend and one further race weekend with the Macau season finale in November.

“Another podium is important for the championship, and now we need to improve for tomorrow, whether it’s dry or wet,” said Urrutia.