Yann Ehrlacher claimed his first pole position of the season and extended his points lead in the Kumho FIA TCR World Tour over Esteban Guerrieri. The Frenchman’s teammate Santiago Urrutia qualified second and Guerrieri himself was third fastest in a session that was disrupted three times by the red flag.
Ehrlacher continued his run of leading every session of the day; after having topped the two practices he was fastest in Q1, going under the two-minute barrier for the first time today with a time of 1:59.958.
It was a disastrous session for several drivers. Néstor Girolami did not even take part, missing Q1 due to a fuel pump issue and so he will start both of tomorrow’s races from the back of the grid. The next unlucky driver was the returning Dušan Borković, who first experienced a driveshaft failure at T11 and stopped on track, causing the first red flag. The Serbian then caused another red flag when he lost control of his Civic and hit the barriers. With damage to the front of the car, he was unable to set a time.
This meant Borković and Girolami were certain to not progress into Q2, while two of the Portuguese guest drivers Michel Fernandes and Daniel Teixeira were also not able to set times good enough to progress.
Manuel Fernandes jr. meanwhile did set a time good enough for P11 in the SP Compétition CUPRA, but on his final lap he crashed out at T10, with heavy damage to his car. He lost his best lap time for causing the third red flag and dropped down to 12th, but though he had made into Q2, his car needed extensive repairs.
In Q2, Ehrlacher laid down a brilliant first lap of 1:59.547 which would secure him the pole, while Mikel Azcona was an early threat to the French driver, but he could only go second fastest. Late improvements from both Urrutia and Guerrieri moved them up to second and third, both also under the 2-minute mark and split by 18 thousandths. Azcona would finish as the best-placed of the Hyundai cars in fourth, with Aurélien Comte qualifying his CUPRA in fifth.
GOAT Racing’s Ignacio Montenegro managed to secure a strategic tenth in qualifying and will start Race 2 from the pole ahead of Ma Qing Hua.
Ehrlacher’s first pole since El Pinar last year moved the Cyan Racing driver 23 points clear of Guerrieri going into the first of tomorrow’s races, with the lights going out at 12:00 local time (13:00 CEST).
Qualifying
1:59.547 Yann Ehrlacher (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03)
1:59.727 Santiago Urrutia (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03)
1:59.745 Esteban Guerrieri (GOAT Racing, Honda Civic Type R FL5)
Championship points
- Y. Ehrlacher, 208 pts; 2. E. Guerrieri, 185; 3. S. Urrutia, 176
Picture: WSC/Fastclick
