Yvan Muller hails fantastic turnaround as Cyan Racing line up 1-2 for China Race 3

Yvan Muller has said it’s been a great effort by the Cyan Racing team overnight, as now the Race 1 winner is joined by team-mates Yann Ehrlacher, Thed Björk and Andy Priaulx, all making Q2 after a tough qualifying session on Saturday.

Muller, who took pole and the victory yesterday, took another pole position today and has now moved up to third in the standings, trailing points leader Guerrieri by 42 heading into this afternoon’s races.

“It’s a fantastic job of all the team, a big effort,” he said.

“I was on the front but my team-mates were quite far behind but they recovered very well, Yann particularly. So that’s very good.

“The complicated thing was to do it yesterday, but to repeat it is even more complicated. We were in my hotel room with Yann last night [discussing the set-up], and it was nearly midnight and at one point I had to say to him ‘go to bed and sleep and let’s see tomorrow’.”

Although Muller starts from pole for Race 3, with the reversed grid, he’ll start tenth for Race 2.

“P10 is not easy for Race 2 but we will have to take care and manage for Race 3,” he said.

Muller’s team-mate, and nephew, Yann Ehrlacher, will join his uncle on the front row after joining him on the podium last time out two months’ ago at Vila Real.

“We were struggling a bit yesterday,” said Ehrlacher.

“I studied until 1am last night and again this morning to find a bit of pace because I was quite far off. Today is quite a good reward to everybody, to the team, to myself for the work we did yesterday to come back from P15 to P2.

“Sector one I was just not confident on the braking spot, I found a bit, I still miss a bit compared to the others but I will work before the race. It’s important Lynk & Co is on pole in China and well done to Yvan, 50 years old is quite impressive.”