Santiago Urrutia has taken his third career pole in the Kumho FIA TCR World Tour at the Zhuzhou International Circuit, leading an all Lynk & Co Cyan Racing top three, with Thed Björk and Yann Ehrlacher right behind, while Mikel Azcona was the best-placed of the Hyundai cars in fourth after a final improvement.
Urrutia also led the first part of qualifying, having topped every session of the weekend so far. With the top TCR China drivers also breaking into the top 12, there were some big scalps in the first session from the TCR World Tour contingent.
With Martin Xie Xin Zhe, David Zhu Dai Wei and Jason Zhang Zhi Qiang also making the top 12, the three international names to miss out were both Volcano Motorsport Audi cars of John Filippi and Rob Huff, and the GOAT Racing Honda of Dušan Borković.
In Q2, the battle was between teammates Urrutia and Björk. Urrutia set the first benchmark of a 1:44.9, before Björk set a 1:44.8 until finally Urrutia snatched it back with a time of 1:44.684 right at the end of the session. Azcona and Néstor Girolami left it to the final minutes to improve, after looking at risk sitting in 11th and 12th, with Azcona’s 1:45.1 putting him fourth on the grid, while Girolami managed to grab tenth and snatch the reversed grid pole position. The two Hyundai drivers’ improvements came to the detriment of the local Teamwork Motorsport drivers Zhu and Zhang, who dropped to 11th and 12th, while the top qualifying TCR China driver was Xie, who qualified in seventh position.
Urrutia said: "Everything is looking good. Especially here because it is the home race for the team, and everyone wants to get a good result. We are now in the first spot, which is good. Pole position is done now so I will help my teammates in the races who are fighting for the title... but so far so good and I am very happy"
Of the other championship front runners, points leader Norbert Michelisz qualified in fifth, with Esteban Guerrieri right behind him in sixth. In the standing, Michelisz maintains his lead on 248 points, while Björk moves up to second, 23 points behind, while Guerrieri is third with a gap of 27.
The first race gets underway at 14:00 local time, 08:00 CEST.
Zhuzhou - Qualifying
1:44.684 – Santiago Urrutia (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03 FL)
1:44.834 – Thed Björk (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03 FL)
1:44.851 – Yann Ehrlacher (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03 FL)
Championship points – TCR World Tour
- N. Michelisz, 248 pts; 2. T. Björk, 225; 3. E. Guerrieri 221
Championship points – TCR China
- J. Zhang Z.Q., 282 pts; 2. M. Xie X.Z., 175; 3. M. Cao H.W. 175
Further information and images @ www.fiatcrworldtour.com
Schedule
Saturday – Race 1: 14:00 (08:00 CEST) live streaming
Sunday – Race 2: 14:00 (08:00 CEST) live streaming
Picture: WSC/Jun Qian Motorsport
