The Frenchman started from pole position for the first race of the weekend on the South American track. Solid and intractable, he won ahead of Mikel Azcona and Thed Björk.

Published on 04/08/2024 à 18:59

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Ehrlacher, from start to finish, wins race 1 in Uruguay

©TCR Media

By starting from pole position, the Frenchman leaves with a nice advantage over his direct opponents in the championship. At the green light, he took an excellent flight and managed to control the attacks of Mikel Azcona's Elantra. The Spaniard then slips into the wake of the Frenchman. At the back, there's trouble. Marco Butti was thrown from the track after his Volcano Motorsport Honda Civic was pushed by two other competitors. The safety car makes its first appearance on the track. On the restart, the double WTCR world champion managed to maintain the advantage against a very enterprising Azcona. The Iberian knows that he must make the difference on this type of opportunity, his car not allowing him, on a regular basis, to overtake the Lynk & Co with the number 68. The Frenchman leads the race ahead of Azcona and Björk who is managed to get rid of Norbert Michelisz (Hyundai Motorsport). The championship leader will be the victim of the (well-known) enthusiasm of Santiago Urrutia who will hit the Hungarian's Hyundai who loses two places in this operation! Fortunately for the Magyar, the collision between Qing Hua Ma (Cyan racing- Lynk & Co 01) and Esteban Guerrieri (Volcano Motorsport- Honda Civic) will allow him to finish in the top 5 of this first round.

PODIUM RACE 01 🏆

P1 @YannEhrlacher 🥇
P2 @mazconaoficial 🥈
P3 @Bjorkbm 🥉

RACE OF URUGUAY 🇺🇾#TCRWorldTour pic.twitter.com/7wGTguPGIm

— TCR Series (@TCR_Series) August 4, 2024

Nothing will interrupt this race and Yann Ehrlacher pockets his 6th victory in the TCR World Tour. The Frenchman was delighted with his result while remaining focused on his title goal: “ I just did the job I'm paid to do. The team did a huge job on the car because I really wasn't comfortable at the start of the weekend. It's great to win this race starting from pole. Azcona put a lot of pressure on me throughout the race. We made the right choices in terms of the set-up and it was perfect.” It's a good deal for the Alsatian who returns to second in the championship, now trailing Michelisz by 21. There is still one round to go here at El Pinar, Ehrlacher will start in 10th position while Michelisz will be 5th on the grid.