Cyan Racing’s Santiago Urrutia was victorious in the opening TCR World Tour / TCR Australia race at Bathurst on Saturday, jumping ahead of pole-sitter Tony D’Alberto to claim his third win of the season.
Urrutia had started alongside D’Alberto on the front row of the grid after team-mate Yann Ehrlacher was handed a five-place grid penalty for an engine change on Friday, and the Uruguayan made good use of his advantageous starting position.
When the lights went out he got his Lynk & Co away from the line better than D’Alberto’s Honda to lead into the first corner, with Néstor Girolami also getting ahead of his Wall Racing team-mate for second at the same time.
Thereafter, Urrutia was unchallenged for the win, extending his advantage to just under a second on the opening lap and gradually extending it to around two seconds before a mid-race safety car pause.
The race had to be neutralised on lap eight after BRC Racing’s Mikel Azcona stopped on track, the Hyundai driver having suffered from a damaged front-right tyre earlier in the lap. Although the Spaniard tried to limp around to the pits, he ultimately stopped on track at The Chase, requiring recovery and the race saw a two lap interlude.
Racing resumed on lap ten for a final two-lap sprint, but the order at the front remained unchanged, with Urrutia now the TCR World Tour’s most winning driver with three wins in his season tally.
Girolami and D’Alberto completed the podium, the latter taking the victory honours in the TCR Australis field – his second such win of the season and first since switching to the newer Honda Civic Type-R FL5.
Ehrlacher started seventh, but was up to fifth by the end of the first lap after jumping past HMO Customer Racing’s Josh Buchan at the start and then Cyan Racing team-mate Thed Björk on the run up Mountain Straight.
When Azcona dropped out of fourth, Ehrlacher inherited the position and held it until the chequered flag, ahead of Björk in fifth.
Comtoyou Racing’s Rob Huff took sixth from Buchan on the first lap of the safety car restart, and in doing so the Brit has taken the lead of the TCR World Tour driver’s standings.
His team-mate Frédéric Vervisch acted as a rear-guard to Huff throughout the race, passing Buchan for seventh on the final lap.
Buchan took the flag in eighth, meaning he finished second overall in TCR Australia, and with title rival and team-mate Bailey Sweeny in 12th overall, fifth in TCR Australia, he has further closed in on the lead of the TCR Australia drivers’ title.
GRM’s Aaron Cameron and BRC Racing’s Norbert Michelisz completed the top ten, giving the duo the front row of the grid for Sunday’s partially-reversed grid second race.
Crucially for Michelisz, he has limited the ground lost to Huff in the TCR World Tour by being just four places behind, whilst securing the optimum starting position for race two.
Zac Soutar brought his Audi home in 11th, ahead of the charging Sweeny in 12th, who had endured turbo issues in qualifying that saw him start from a lowly 16th. Sweeny had in fact dropped two places at the start, before putting in a determined drive which saw him pass five cars in the race as the biggest mover in the field.
Ma Qing Hua took the finish in 12th but the Cyan Racing driver was given a five second time penalty for a false start, dropping him to 16th.
Race two is scheduled to get underway at 12:50 local time (2:50 CET, 01:50 GMT) on Sunday.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 112 | WT |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 11 | 28:33.3316 | 2:15.629 | 2 |
| 2 | 129 | WT |  |
Néstor GIROLAMI | Honda Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 11 | 0.7657 | 2:15.935 | 4 |
| 3 | 1 | AU |  |
Tony D’ALBERTO | Honda Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 11 | 1.3354 | 2:15.830 | 1 |
| 4 | 168 | WT |  |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 11 | 3.8570 | 2:15.998 | 7 |
| 5 | 111 | WT |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 11 | 4.5411 | 2:16.555 | 6 |
| 6 | 179 | WT |  |
Rob HUFF | Audi Sport Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 11 | 5.1408 | 2:16.665 | 8 |
| 7 | 122 | WT |  |
Frédéric VERVISCH | Audi Sport Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 11 | 6.7748 | 2:16.453 | 10 |
| 8 | 30 | AU | |
Josh BUCHAN | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 11 | 7.0719 | 2:16.680 | 5 |
| 9 | 18 | AU | |
Aaron CAMERON | Team Valvoline GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 11 | 7.7516 | 2:16.596 | 14 |
| 10 | 105 | WT |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 11 | 8.3299 | 2:16.488 | 11 |
| 11 | 110 | AU | |
Zac SOUTAR | Team Soutar Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 11 | 9.3579 | 2:16.831 | 9 |
| 12 | 130 | AU | |
Bailey SWEENY | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 9.8128 | 2:16.733 | 16 |
| 13 | 9 | AU | |
Will BROWN | MPC Team LIQUI MOLY | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 11 | 11.1469 | 2:17.120 | 13 |
| 14 | 33 | AU | |
Jordan COX | Schaeffler GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 11 | 12.0337 | 2:17.354 | 17 |
| 15 | 4 | AU | |
Teddy CLAIRET | Hangcha Forklifts | Peugeot 308 TCR | 11 | 13.4584 | 2:17.732 | 19 |
| 16 | 155 | WT |  |
MA Qing Hua | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 11 | 14.7457 | 2:16.825 | 12 |
| 17 | 115 | AU | |
Tom OLIPHANT | Autoglym / Ashley Seward Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 11 | 15.1433 | 2:18.273 | 20 |
| 18 | 74 | AU | |
Brad HARRIS | Exclusive Switchboards / Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 11 | 16.3211 | 2:18.265 | 21 |
| 19 | 22 | AU | |
Iain MCDOUGALL | Challenge Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 11 | 19.9448 | 2:19.679 | 23 |
| 20 | 14 | AU | |
Lachlan MINEEFF | Purple Sector | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 11 | 1:03.5230 | 2:18.141 | 22 |
| R | 15 | AU | |
Michael CLEMENTE | Carl Cox Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 10 | DNF | 2:17.337 | 18 |
| R | 71 | AU | |
Ben BARGWANNA | Burson Auto Parts Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 9 | DNF | 2:17.292 | 15 |
| R | 196 | WT |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | DNF | 2:15.887 | 3 |
| NS | 76 | AU | |
Will HARRIS | Exclusive Switchboards / Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | – | DNS | N/A | – |