Kumho FIA TCR World Tour – Valencia Races 2 & 3 Urrutia completes a hat trick of wins

Although his first two wins were sent from heaven following the technical issues that stopped the leaders Mikel Azcona and Jenson Brickley in the late stages, Urrutia was clearly the most competitive driver during the race.

He not only became the first driver to win all three races in one weekend of the Kumho FIA TCR World Tour, but he also ended a drought of victories that lasted since 2023.  While other title contenders experienced different misfortunes, such as the reigning champion Yann Ehrlacher and the local hero Azcona, Urrutia but also Thed Björk capitalised moving up to second and third in the standings split by 20 points; Azcona is now third 29 points behind.

Full stories: Race 2 – Race 3

Race 2 (Full Results)
1. Santiago Urrutia (Geely Cyan Racing, Geely Preface), 22 laps
2. Aurélien Comte (SP Compétition, CUPRA Leon VZ), 1.346
3. Norbert Michelisz (BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse, Hyundai Elantra N EV), 1.624

Race 3 (Full Results)
1. Santiago Urrutia (Geely Cyan Racing, Geely Preface), 24 laps
2. Thed Björk (Geely Cyan Racing, Geely Preface), 1.582
3. Mikel Azcona (BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse, Hyundai Elantra N EV), 3.658

Championship points (Full Standings)
1. S. Urrutia, 140 pts.; 2. T. Björk, 120; 3. M. Azcona, 111

Information and images: www.fiatcrworldtour.com

Santiago Urrutia, 1st: “We expected to do good, as we knew we had a good car. I think I won the race at the start and then I was controlling the pace. I ended up P1 which is very good, this is what we need to fight for the championship. I was saving my tyres for the end, but then Brickley had a problem and so I got the opportunity, this is racing, it’s sad it happened to him, but it’s happened to me many times.”

Santiago Urrutia, 1st: “It feels good. It’s hard sometimes to be far from your home, being alone at a race weekend and not have a good weekend, and to have my dad here this weekend and end up winning all three races it’s amazing. It’s very good for the championship and very good for Geely as well. To win three races you need to have a bit of luck, and I had that this weekend. I was very under pressure in Race 3 as I needed to do a good start, and I had a good start, everything worked out really well.”

After emerging as the best driver eligible in the ETS Guest Star Trophy in Saturday’s Race 1, Viktor Andersson repeated himself in the pair of Sunday’s races.

“I think that was my strongest weekend, feeling wise with the car. The first race of the day was a bit tricky for the tyres, but we kept it on track and we won in TCR Spain and I was the best ETS Guest Star driver, so it was a good result. The last race was not counting for TCR Spain, so I went all in to find some more pace and see what we can do. I was happy to just survive. It was the end of a super-good weekend, three times winner in the ETS Guest Star Trophy! It was a exciting on the first half lap, but then it became a lot more difficult. Having Yann behind, the whole second half of the race was not easy, so I was happy to keep him behind.”

Piirimägi was second on the reversed grid for Race 2, with Andersson in P10; the Estonian driver started well but was hit by Briché and both went wide at T1. Andersson led from Sandro Pelatti, Gianfratti and Zabala. After a brief safety car intervention for recovering Manuel Fernandes’ Audi from the gravel after a contact with Mathieu Casalonga, Zabala overtook Pelatti for third. In the last part of the race, Andersson climbed to eighth overall and took the flag 2.8 second ahead of Gianfratti, with Zabala completing the podium.
These results helped Andersson to stretch his leadership in the standings to 28 points over Zabala, with Piirimägi now 46 behind.

The championship will resume after a four-month break at Navarra on October 9/11.

Race 2
1. Viktor Andersson (Monlau Motorsport, CUPRA Leon VZ), 22 laps
2. Enzo Gianfratti (DSOEM Motorsport, CUPRA Leon VZ), 2.871
3. Erik Zabala (Team Clairet Sport, Audi RS 3 LMS), 14.438

Championship points
1. V. Andersson, 184 pts; 2. E. Zabala, 156; 3. S.D. Piirimägi, 138

8/10 May – Rounds 1 & 2 @ Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli
12/14 June – Rounds 3, 4 & 5 @ Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Valencia
4/5 July – Rounds 6 & 7 @ Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet
11/12 July – Rounds 8 & 9 @ Circuito Internacional de Vila Real
2/4 October – Rounds 10, 11 & 12 @ Inje Speedium
16/18 October – Rounds 13, 14 & 15 @ Chengdu Tianfu International Circuit
23/25 October – Rounds 16, 17 & 18 @ Hunan International Circuit, Zhuzhou
19/22 November – Rounds 19 & 20 @ Guia Circuit, Macau