Photo: WTCR

Yvan Muller points to missed Sepang test opportunity for Lynk & Co struggles

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Yvan Muller has outlined some of the reasons he believes to be at the centre of Lynk & Co’s dreadful weekend so far at the World Touring Car Cup finale at Sepang.

The quartet of Cyan Racing-run Lynk & Co cars have struggled massively for performance in Malaysia, with the squad’s star-studded driver line-up failing to advance past Q1 in Friday night’s qualifying session and consistently lapping some two seconds off the pace.

Muller was the lead Lynk & Co driver in qualifying, taking a modest 13th, while fellow title rivals Norbert Michelisz (Hyundai) and Esteban Guerrieri (Honda) locked out the front row in the decisive Q3 segment.

Asked by TouringCarTimes to explain the issues, Muller said a raft of factors had combined to paint the current picture.

“It is in different areas,” the four-time world touring car champion said. “In terms of lap time we are far away. It is probably a bit in the set-up, a bit because of the 30kg extra [we have] compared to the Hyundai and the 40kg more than the Honda. We knew it would be hard this weekend because already with the 30 or 40kg we would expect a deficit of around four-six tenths per lap, but that is not enough [to account for the full time loss]. Most of the lack is on the straight, and a bit of everywhere.

“We knew it would be hard, but not like this. We didn’t expect this situation at all, especially not after our strong weekend in Macau.”

Muller continued to explain that the general feeling of the car was “not that bad,” and pointed to the late start of the Lynk & Co programme – which is debuting in WTCR this season – as a contributing factor to its Malaysian woes.

While both main rivals Honda and Hyundai have been able to gather important track knowledge of new-for-2019 WTCR venue Sepang through various testing and racing commitments, Lynk & Co have not had the same opportunity, something Muller felt was pivotal.

“You know, the programme only started this year basically,” said the Frenchman. “There was an opportunity to come here and test like they [Honda and Hyundai] did in March, but we couldn’t at the moment because we were simply not ready. That was one of the keys probably to how this weekend is going.

“If we’d have had the possibility to come here, we would not have been as bad as you saw yesterday.”

With Cyan Racing Lynk & Co (with Muller and Thed Björk) still leading the teams’ championship, however, Muller said the priority is now to win that.

“After qualifying, we don’t have the destiny in our hands, so I think the drivers’ championship is over. Now the target is to fight for the teams’ championship, but even that will be difficult. We have looked at all the possible scenarios and it will be tough, but we are still fighting.

“Of course, we will be disappointed if we don’t win, but at the same time we have to keep in mind that this is only the first season of the car. We started late, we worked hard and we can be proud with what we did.”