Santiago Urrutia wins the first race of WTCR at Adria

Santiago Urrutia has taken his second win of the season at Adria Raceway, and in doing so has moved back up to joint-second in the championship, on equal points with Esteban Guerrieri, who finished in third position.
The Uruguayan started from pole position but was outdriven to the first corner by Guerrieri in his Honda; however, Urrutia was able to retake the lead with a robust move at the final corner, going down the inside of Guerrieri.
Urrutia then began to pull away from Guerrieri, who found himself under attack from the Audi RS 3 LMS of Tom Coronel, who eventually made his way past onto the main straight at the end of lap ten.
Guerrieri held on to third to score key points, while championship leader Yann Ehrlacher found himself under pressure from the Hyundai cars behind him. Ehrlacher was passed by his main championship rival Jean-Karl Vernay on lap four, who later had a coming together with the Audi of Nathanaël Berthon, which saw Berthon ending into the tyre wall and retiring.
Gabriele Tarquini was the second Hyundai driver to get past Ehrlacher, lunging down the inside at the first corner on the final lap to secure a tenth-place finish in the first race of his final racing weekend at home in Italy.
Urrutia’s win sees him move to 21 points behind Ehrlacher in the standings, tied with Guerrieri.
Ehrlacher continues leading the standings, with a margin of 21 points over Urrutia and Guerrieri, while Vernay and Frédéric Vervisch follow with gaps of 24 and 30 points.
The second race, with Ehrlacher set to start from pole position, gets underway at 12:15 CET.

Adria – Race 1
1. Santiago Urrutia (Cyan Performance, Lynk & Co 03), 14 laps
2. Tom Coronel (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 1.432
3. Esteban Guerrieri (Münnich Motorsport, Honda Civic Type R), 3.352
4. Norbert Michelisz (BRC Squadra Corse, Hyundai Elantra N), 4.675
5. Yvan Muller (Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03), 5.711

Championship points
1. Y. Ehrlacher 175 pts; 2. S. Urrutia 154; 3. E. Guerrieri 154

Picture: WTCR/DPPI