Norbert Michelisz wins in a busy TCR World Tour schedule

The TCR World Tour drivers will share the stage with the stars of Australian Supercars. But the weekend in the southern hemisphere began with a huge wave of concern among TCR competitors, as the containers from Europe arrived only a few hours before the start of free practice. Having left last July after the Vila Real round, the cars and equipment set off by sea for a very long journey of nearly two months. A huge storm then considerably delayed the arrival of the TCR World Tour freight. The containers were freshly unloaded Friday afternoon in Sydney. They still had to be transported by road to Adelaide so that the teams could collect their equipment. The race against time by each of the participants allowed the program to start on time, despite all the pitfalls. 

Yann Ehrlacher prepares to suffer

The Alsatian driver scored a full score during the Portuguese round in the streets of Vila Real and has a 27-point lead over Esteban Guerrieri (Goat Racing- Honda Civic). The Lynk&Co driver is therefore preparing to compete in this Australian round with 40 kg of success ballast. As if that wasn't enough, he has taken on an additional 20 kg imposed by the balance of performance. The World Cup leader is therefore carrying 60 kg in his Lynk&Co 03!! The conclusion is clear: "we are settled, we take 12 km/h in top speed" Yann told us, a little resigned. He will have to be wary of the return of Guerrieri but also of his teammate Thed Björk (Lynk&Co 03) who will try to stay in the fight against the 2023 and 2024 winner Norbert Michelisz. The Hungarian must recover after a complicated end to the European campaign. The other Frenchman on the grid, Aurélien Comte (Cupra Leon-SG Competition) still has his say in the general classification. He will try to get on the right track for this second half of the season and thus confirm his more than promising start to the season. 

The C1 dominated by the Hyundai boys

Norbert Michelisz returned to victory by beating his teammate Mikel Azcona, who had dominated the entire race. The two men were joined on the podium by Yann Ehrlacher, who thought he was suffering. The Frenchman had managed to qualify 3rd for this first race despite the excess weight of his Lynk&Co 03. During the first laps of the race, the double WTCR winner managed to keep pace with Azcona and Michelisz. The battle was lively at the back between Björk and Josh Bucan (Hyundai Elantra) the multiple Australian TCR champion. Guerrieri is 8th at the start of the race and is doing his utmost to catch up with Ehrlacher, still 3rd after the first third of the race. In the lead, Azcona seems to want nothing to share with Michelisz, he leads comfortably ahead of the Hungarian and Ignacio Montenegro (Goat racing- Honda Civic). Aurélien Comte is 10th in the heat. Halfway through the race, race control gives Mikel Azcona a 5-second penalty for jumping the start. As a good teammate, Michelisz will allow his teammate to maintain the necessary gap to win this first race on the superb circuit of The Bend. But at the finish line, Azcona fails by two thousandths of a second!

In the championship standings, Ehrlacher is further extending the gap on his closest rival: Esteban Guerrieri is 45 points behind the Alsatian!! There is one more race to go, Sunday morning (4am French time) for which the Frenchman will start from 7th place. 

TCR World Tour - Race 1 Results