Yann Ehrlacher cruises to victory in opening Vila Real race

Yann Ehrlacher led a Cyan Racing 1-2 in the first FIA TCR World Tour race of the weekend on the streets of Vila Real, with team-mate Santiago Urrutia and GOAT Racing’s Esteban Guerrieri completing the podium.

Before the race got underway, GOAT Racing’s Ignacio Montenegro was given a drive-through penalty for a start procedure infringement, and the Argentine pitted at the end of the warm up lap, as did MA:GP’s Viktor Andersson, who would otherwise have started seventh.

Ehrlacher made a good start when the lights went out to lead Urrutia, whilst BRC Racing’s Mikel Azcona was slow away from the line and dropped behind SP Compétition’s Aurélien Comte to fifth.

Further back, the GOAT Racing Honda of Dušan Borković was up to tenth by the end of the opening lap, from 13^th on the grid, with BRC Racing’s Néstor Girolami two places back from 15^th.

Little changed at the front until lap ten when Azcona slowed, having suffered damage to his left-rear tyre, and the Spaniard had to pit for a hasty wheel swap.

That promoted team-mate Norbert Michelisz, struggling with 40 kg of compensation weight, up to fifth, the Hungarian under heavy pressure from Cyan Racing’s Ma Qing Hua and Thed Björk.

However, with few places to pass on the fast street circuit, the order was largely unchanged thereafter.

Borković retired after seven laps sporting damage to the front-right wheel of his car, dropping the Serbian out of ninth place.

Ehrlacher won from Urrutia by just over a second, with GOAT Racing’s Esteban Guerrieri completing the podium.

Victory for Ehrlacher sees him extend his championship lead to 238 points, 31 ahead of Guerrieri.

Comte was the sole CUPRA in the race and finished in fourth, whilst Michelisz withstood the pressure from the Lynk & Cos behind to take fifth, from Ma in sixth and Björk in seventh.

Girolami passed local racer Daniel Teixeira on the second lap and ultimately finished in eighth, after Borković and Azcona’s issues, whilst Marco Butti also pitted from ninth on the seventh lap.

The top ten was completed by the two drivers who had to serve penalties – Montenegro and Teixeira – whilst Azcona rejoined the race and finished in 11^th.

SP Compétition’s other two CUPRAs did not participate – Manuel Fernandes Jr having crashed his car heavily in qualifying on Saturday and John Filippi having withdrawn before the event.

Race two is scheduled to get underway at 17:05 WEST (17:05 BST, 18:05 CEST).

Race result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	168			Yann EHRLACHER	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	14	28:58.664	2:02.912	1
2	112			Santiago URRUTIA	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	14	1.021	2:03.325	2
3	186			Esteban GUERRIERI	GOAT Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	14	1.994	2:03.551	3
4	107			Aurélien COMTE	SP Compétition	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	14	5.362	2:03.722	5
5	105			Norbert MICHELISZ	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	14	6.702	2:03.839	6
6	155			MA Qing Hua	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	14	7.546	2:03.806	9
7	111			Thed BJÖRK	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	14	9.083	2:03.964	8
8	129			Néstor GIROLAMI	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	14	15.100	2:03.522	14
9	123			Ignacio MONTENEGRO	GOAT Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	14	52.165	2:02.453	10
10	59			Daniel TEIXEIRA	JT59 Racing Team	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	14	53.336	2:03.494	12
11	196			Mikel AZCONA	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	14	1:46.868	2:03.141	4
12	14			Michel FERNANDES	J. Santos Competição	Peugeot 308 TCR	14	2:08.016	2:11.284	15
13	11			Marco BUTTI	GOAT Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	13	+ 1 LAP	2:04.095	11
14	10			Viktor ANDERSSON	MA:GP	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	10	+ 4 LAPS	2:04.732	7
15	62			Dušan BORKOVIĆ	GOAT Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	7	DNF	2:04.025	13
NS	77			Manuel FERNANDES JR	SP Compétition	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	–	DNS	N/A	–
WD	127			John FILIPPI	SP Compétition	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	–	DNS	N/A	–