Yann Ehrlacher took a lights-to-flag victory in the opening race of the Kumho FIA TCR World Tour at Vila Real. The Cyan Racing driver led his teammate Santiago Urrutia across the line to claim his third win of the season and further extend his lead in the standings over Esteban Guerrieri, who finished third.
Ehrlacher got away well from the pole ahead of Urrutia and Guerrieri, while Aurélien Comte got the jump on Mikel Azcona’s Hyundai and grabbed fourth, despite Azcona trying to come across and cover the CUPRA driver.
Before the start, both Viktor Andersson and Ignacio Montenegro had headed into the pit lane, with Andersson suffering with a fuel pump issue and rejoining three laps down.
Up front, Ehrlacher, Urrutia, and Guerrieri began to break away from Comte, while Montenegro joined the race from the pit lane but soon picked up a drive-through penalty for a starting procedure infringement.
His GOAT Racing teammates soon ran into trouble of their own, with Marco Butti pitting from ninth with a slow puncture, while Dušan Borković, who had moved up from 14th to ninth retired with a broken rear wheel due to a contact with the wall.
A slide for Mikel Azcona resulted in a rear-left puncture for the Spanish driver who pitted from fifth place, then rejoined to finish in 11th position.
Montenegro was on a recovery drive after his penalty and managed to make the last key pass of the race, overtaking Daniel Teixeira for ninth on the final lap.
Nothing could stop Ehrlacher from cruising to victory ahead of Urrutia, with all three of the leading title contenders standing on the podium.
Ehrlacher now leads by 31 points over Guerrieri and 37 clear of Urrutia, but he’ll start tenth in this afternoon’s reversed grid Race 2 at 17:05 local time (18:05 CEST), while Montenegro’s Honda will be on pole.
Race 1
- Yann Ehrlacher (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03), 14 laps
- Santiago Urrutia (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03), 1.021
- Esteban Guerrieri (GOAT Racing, Honda Civic Type R FL5), 1.994
Championship points
- Y. Ehrlacher, 238 pts; 2. E. Guerrieri, 207; 3. S. Urrutia, 201
Picture: WSC/Fastclick
