Münnich Motorsport’s Yann Ehrlacher heads to Suzuka for this weekend’s FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) races in a ‘confident’ mood, with the Honda driver seeking to move on from two difficult events in China.
Ehrlacher had been fourth overall in the drivers’ standings heading to the Asian leg of the season, but a spate of poor performances in Ningbo and Wuhan has left him down in ninth in the standings, 63 points from the top of the table and effectively ending his title hopes with six races left to run.
Despite that, the Frenchman heads to the Japanese round of the series this weekend in a confident mood, looking forward to racing his Honda Civic Type R around the Japanese manufacturer’s home circuit.
Ehrlacher also believes he stands a good chance of emulating the pace he showed in The Netherlands earlier in the year, where he took a win and a second in the first two races respectively, before finishing sixth in race three.
“I’m very excited about racing at Suzuka in front of Honda’s home crowd, and about competing at this legendary circuit,” said Ehrlacher.
“The circuit Suzuka is most similar to on the WTCR calendar is Zandvoort, and that was a track where I won and was on the podium in all three races.
“I’m confident that we can get into a good rhythm with the Civic Type R TCR early on and have a strong weekend so that we can totally forget about the disappointing results in Wuhan.”
The WTCR track action kicks off on Friday, with two free practice sessions followed by both qualifying sessions, whilst race one follows on Saturday.