Santiago Urrutia wins the first race at Alta Gracia
Guest driver Santiago Urrutia claimed his second victory in TCR South America when he won the first race at Alta Gracia from the points leader Pepe Oriola. Urrutia made a great start from P9 on the grid and took the lead from Oriola in lap 3; for the rest of the race the Uruguayan managed to maintain a stable one-second margin over the Spaniard; behind them José Manuel Sapag put in a great defensive drive to beat Fabricio Pezzini and Rodrigo Baptista in the thrilling battle for the third position.
Adalberto Baptista’s Audi and Javier Manta’s Alfa Romeo filled the front row of the top-ten reversed grid, but at the start Oriola sprinted from P3 and led the field into Turn 1 ahead of Manta, Sapag and Urrutia, while Ernesto Bessone’s debutting Peugeot 308 retired into the pits at the end of the formation lap with a gearbox issue.
Urrutia passed Sapag in lap 1, Manta in lap 2 and Oriola in lap 3 moving into the lead.
Behind the two leaders, Sapag was closely chased by Rodrigo Baptista and Pezzini, beginning a battle that would last until the end.
Further back, Matías Cravero was stubbornly defending the sixth position from Raphael Reis, while Manta dropped behind them and eventually stopped with a broken driveshaft during the 13th lap.
The gap between Urrutia and Oriola kept on varying between nine tenths and 1.4 seconds until the Uruguayan took the chequered flag one second before his rival. Pezzini was finally able to pass Baptista for P4 in lap 15, but he couldn’t to pass Sapag who beat him on the line by one tenth. Baptista was classified fifth ahead of Reis who passed Cravero during the penultimate lap.
Oriola has stretched his leadership in the standings to 16 points over Baptista, with Reis 13 further points adrift.
Race 2 will follow at 10:00 local time (14:00 CET); live streaming at www.tcr-series.com.
Alta Gracia – Race 1
1. Santiago Urrutia (PMO Motorsport, Lynk & Co 03), 17 laps
2. Pepe Oriola (W2 Racing, Honda Civic Type R FK7), 1.043
3. José Manuel Sapag (Squadra Martino, Honda Civic Type R FK7), 4.742
4. Fabricio Pezzini (PMO Motorsport, Lynk & Co 03), 4.849
5. Rodrigo Baptista (Cobra Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 5.416
Championship points
1. P. Oriola 218 pts; 2. R. Baptista 202; 3. R. Reis 189
Picture: TCR South America/Hernán Capa
