Yann Ehrlacher: “I dreamed of this all my life”

Yann, we know each other well. I don't think I've ever seen you as tense as you were this weekend? 

I can tell you that the pressure wasn't just in the tires. But I've been like this for 15 days. I woke up at night, I had pain everywhere. I really wasn't feeling well. I didn't want to look at social networks, I had lots of messages, I told myself that if I missed it it would make a lot of people disappointed. It's pretty crazy, I thought about it all day, I dreamed about it all my life and here I was on the verge of the goal. 

Even getting out of the car when the times were good, you were still super stressed, you were in pain, weren't you?

I have a mental coach who I had to call a few times because I needed relief. It's true that normally I'm a relaxed, friendly and smiling person. I closed myself off, I didn't want to let anything show and conserve all the energy I still had. I wasn't at my best psychologically. In Q1 I was a little tight inside, and after I freed myself a little there was less pressure. It's still part of the experience and things I'm going to have to improve on. 

Did your choice of tires in race 1 make you doubt the outcome of the day? 

Either way, it makes you think. You arrive in the morning you have a 31 point lead at the end of the race you only have 16 points left, you are obviously a little freaked out, especially since there are still two races left. In any case, we cannot say that we made a bad choice of tires. We did the one that seemed the least risky given our position in the championship. At this precise moment, it was Jean Karl our biggest threat and not Guerrieri since he was 18th. He had a great race, I have a lot of respect for Esteban and the team he rides for. So I questioned myself a little between the two races, there was a good time so I had time to think about it. We had a very good second race, everything was sorted.

Find the entire interview in AUTOhebdo No. 2287 available online and still on sale at newsstands.