Yann Ehrlacher claimed victory in the opening round of the Kumho FIA TCR World Tour at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, leading teammates Thed Björk and Santiago Urrutia in a Lynk & Co Cyan Racing 1-2-3. The story of the race was the intense battle between Ehrlacher and Urrutia, with the French driver eventually coming out on top.
Esteban Guerrieri was on pole position, but he bogged down at the start, as did Björk behind him while from P5, P8, and P11 on the grid, three cars made sensational starts. Urrutia dived out from behind Guerrieri and Björk, storming to the lead. Behind him, TCR México regulars Julio Rejón and Michel Jourdain were also fast starters; Rejón was up to second on the way to T1 before he ran wide and dropped a few places, which helped Ehrlacher to reclaim second, while Jourdain moved into third from the sixth row of the grid.
On the opening lap, Ignacio Montenegro’s race came to an abrupt end when a rear wheel on his Honda disconnected from the car; the Argentine spun and crashed into the barriers.
On lap 2, Ehrlacher took the lead from Urrutia, but was instructed to hand the position back on lap 5, before the two were cleared to fight. Ehrlacher closed on Urrutia, and they began a wheel-to-wheel battle which lasted seven laps.
Ehrlacher made a dive on Urrutia at the chicane on lap 8 but was forced to cut the corner for avoiding the tyre stacks and rejoined ahead, however he soon relinquished the position. The safety car was deployed as the tyre stacks at T3 had been moved in a separate incident and when the race resumed Ehrlacher was again pressuring Urrutia. Eventually he made his move at T1 on lap 13 to grab the lead.
Behind them, Björk, who had made his way past Jourdain and Aurélien Comte climbing to P3, got past Urrutia for second, and from then on, the battle between the top three settled down. Comte soon lost fourth to a charging Guerrieri who was recovering from his bad start, while the Frenchman managed to fend off Ma Qing Hua for fifth.
Julio Rejón finished as the best-placed of the Mexican contingent, having passed Jourdain on lap four.
Mikel Azcona was the best-placed of the BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse in tenth and so secured pole position for the reversed-grid second race, which starts at 11:30 local time (19:30 CEST) on Saturday.
Race 1
- Yann Ehrlacher (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03 FL), 20 laps
- Thed Björk (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03 FL), 3.581
- Santiago Urrutia (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03 FL), 5.544
Championship points – TCR China Challenge
- Y. Ehrlacher, 40 pts; 2. E. Guerrieri, 35; 3. T. Björk, 33
Picture: WSC/FPC
