In the first Kumho FIA TCR World Tour race at Valencia, Cyan Racing Lynk & Co drivers encored the 1-2-3 achieved in the morning qualifying. However, this time was Yann Ehrlacher who led the trio, outperforming his pole-sitting teammate Santiago Urrutia at the start, while Ma Qing Hua had a steady run to third to seal a perfect result for the Swedish team.
Urrutia started from pole but had a slow getaway and so tried to cover off Ehrlacher, forcing him to put a wheel on the grass, but the French driver was able to get ahead as their cars made door-to-door contact.
Through T2, Eric Gené dived down the inside of Ignacio Montenegro to try and take fourth from the Argentine, forcing him wide and into the tyre stacks at T3. Montenegro’s car sustained terminal damage and Gené who was running fifth was given a ten-second penalty, which was effectively redundant as he pitted with three laps to go, going on to rejoin a lap down. The battle for the positions made two other victims: Aurélien Comte and Mikel Azcona who had to pit for repairs, rejoining one and three laps down respectively.
Julien Briché and Marco Butti came together at T1 on lap 6, which resulted in Butti pitting, rejoining and stopping on circuit, causing a three-lap deployment of the safety car. At the restart, Ehrlacher held station at the lead, while Ma slipped down the inside of Urrutia at T1 but was ordered to give the place back a lap later and the three drivers continued in the order to the finish.
Norbert Michelisz was classified fourth, the best of the Hyundai cars, while Thed Björk made a strong recovery from tenth on the grid to finish fifth. Néstor Girolami crossed the line sixth ahead of the best-placed guest driver, Briché.
With the top ten reversed on the grid for Race 2, GOAT Racing’s Felipe Fernández will start from pole position ahead of teammate Esteban Guerrieri, who has lost the lead of the standings to Urrutia by four points, with Björk third, four further points adrift.
The second race is scheduled to get underway at 10:20 CEST tomorrow morning.
Race 1
- Yann Ehrlacher (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03 FL), 18 laps
- Santiago Urrutia (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03 FL), 0.828
- Ma Qing Hua (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03 FL), 1.852
Championship points
- S. Urrutia, 109 pts; 2. E. Guerrieri, 105; 3. T. Björk, 101
Picture: WSC/Fastclick
