Yann Ehrlacher has claimed pole position for the second meeting of the Kumho FIA TCR World Tour at Marrakech, after the Lynk & Co Cyan Racing driver blitzed the time sheets with a lap of 49.641, outqualifying his teammate Santiago Urrutia by three-tenths at the short circuit.
It was a tough Q1 session for the Moroccan drivers, with Mehdi Bennani clipping a wall and damaging his Team Clairet Sport CUPRA Leon VZ, while Sami Taoufik was forced to stop early, suffering from damaged rear suspension on his Volcano Motorsport Audi.
Mikel Azcona led the first part of the session with a time of 50.069, while in Q2, the Lynk & Co cars turned up the wick and broke straight into the 49s, with Ehrlacher leading Urrutia right from his first lap. Their closest rival was initially Néstor Girolami in the BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse Elantra, before he was outpaced by teammate Norbert Michelisz just before the half-way point.
By this time, the star of the session was guest driver Julien Piguet, who was just a couple of tenths off the pace on his TCR debut in the Audi run by Team Clairet Sport.
Unfortunately, Piguet’s session came to an end with five minutes to go when he clipped the tyre stack at T7, damaging his car’s front suspension. When the session resumed, the focus was on the ultra-close fight for tenth place, which would seal the reversed grid pole position for Race 2.
Cyan Racing’s Ma Qing Hua improved to ninth, which put the Audi of John Filippi at risk in tenth. When the Frenchman improved his time and moved up to fifth, this put Ma on provisional pole, but the Honda of Marco Butti and the Lynk & Co of Thed Björk were still trying to improve. With two tenths separating them, Björk could only improve to 11th and just missed the cut, leaving Ma on pole for Race 2, and Butti down in 12th for both races. Ma will start Race 2 ahead of Esteban Guerrieri in the GOAT Racing Honda.
Ehrlacher: "It was a good qualifying, well operated by the team. We worked a lot on the car to put this lap together and get the maximum out of the car. We now have to focus on the race tomorrow. I don’t know if you remember, in 2017 I was meant to start from pole here in my first race in touring cars but I was disqualified... The trick is to go very close to the wall, as it’s a street circuit and you have to maximise... I have lost half of my mirrors. You have to brake very late, and the grip is always evolving too so you have to keep up with the set-up, but I’m surrounded by very professional guys."
Marrakech - Qualifying
49.641 – Yann Ehrlacher (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03 FL)
49.900 – Santiago Urrutia (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03 FL)
49.939 – Norbert Michelisz (BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse, Hyundai Elantra N)
Championship points
- N. Michelisz, 69 pts; 2. Y. Ehrlacher, 52; 3. S. Urrutia, 49
Further information and images @ www.fiatcrworldtour.com
Schedule
Saturday – Race 1: 11:30 (12:30 CEST) live streaming
Saturday – Race 2: 15:30 (16:30 CEST) live streaming
Picture: WSC/Fastclick
