After the drama at Mid-Ohio, with Esteban Guerrieri and Santiago Urrutia making contact at the end of the action-packed race, it was a clean fight that saw Guerrieri claim his first Kumho TCR World Tour victory in the first race at Interlagos on July 21, getting the drive off the line to deprive his rival South American to victory.
It would prove pivotal, as it was Guerrieri’s only win of the season, but also the victory which firmly established the GOAT Racing Honda driver as a genuine contender for the year’s drivers’ title. On the flipside, it proved to be a missed opportunity for Urrutia, who had starred in qualifying, grabbing pole position with relative ease.
Urrutia’s car seemed to miss the start, while Guerrieri flew into the lead, leaping over the kerbs at T1 while Urrutia was trying to steal a tow down the next straight to try and slipstream back past the Argentinian. It seemed to work, with Urrutia getting a fantastic run around the outside and was nearly a whole car length ahead, but the wily Honda driver was able to run him wide and keep the position.
An early safety car gave some time for everyone to everyone to catch their breath, and after the restart Guerrieri controlled the pace, romping to victory by building almost a four second lead in the JAS Motorsport-developed Civic Type R.
Re-live the race on the official TCR TV YouTube channel here.
Picture: WSC
