Team WRT’s Santiago Urrutia was ‘a little bit surprised’ to set the pace in the opening TCR Europe practice session at Hockenheim, with the Uruguayan making returning to the German circuit for the first time in half a decade.
Urrutia – who last raced at the 2.8-mile Baden Wurttemberg venue in 2014 with GP3 – put his Audi RS 3 LMS at the top of the timesheets with a late effort to edge out erstwhile leaders Aurelien Comte and Josh Files.
He made a positive start to life in TCR Europe at the Hungaroring season-opener, taking sixth amid difficult weather conditions in the final race after an earlier retirement.
“I’m a little bit surprised, as I haven’t driven at this circuit for [five] years,” said Urrutia.
“Okay, it’s only Free Practice, but for the moment I’m really happy with what the team has done and for myself that I am improving my driving.
“It’s really important to be P1 because it means we are going in the right way. We want to get big points here and I think we have the pace, so let’s see if we can keep going in this way and make it a good weekend.”
The second free practice session is scheduled to get underway at 15:40 (BST).