Yann Ehrlacher: Start was ‘the only chance for victory’ in Estoril opener

Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher says that the start was ‘the only chance’ he was going to have to win the opening FIA World Touring Car Cup race of the weekend at Estoril.

Defending champion Ehrlacher started second on the reversed grid and made a better start than pole sitter Gabriele Tarquini to steal the lead into the first corner.

From then on, the Frenchman had to defend heavily from Tarquini’s Hyundai Elantra N TCR but caught a break when Tarquini was forced out with a front-right puncture just after half-distance.

With the BoP limiting the Lynk & Cos to lower straight-line speed than the Hyundai, Ehrlacher knew his best chance at victory was by securing road position at the start.

“The start was very good, it was probably my only chance to win the race,” Ehrlacher said in the post-race press conference.

“I knew I had to be alongside on the way into T1, so that was the aim. The safety car didn’t make my life any easier, and I had to fight with [Tarquini] him after and with our lower top speed, I really had to defend, but he burnt his front tyres and I managed to win this one.”

Although he got past Tarquini off the line, Ehrlacher still had a lot of work to do after an early safety car intervention in defending his lead.

Tyre preservation, as much as the straight-line speed deficit, were the main concerns for Ehrlacher but it was Tarquini who fell by the wayside after suffering a puncture.

“With their top speed, it’s not easy to defend, but he got the puncture so that made things a bit better for me,” Ehrlacher added.

“It was all about managing the tyres in the race, there was a bit of debris on the track everywhere so we had that to deal with. It’s the first time I have ever raced here in touring cars so there are a few things which we can improve for Race 2, but today was good, we got some good points for the championship and I am very happy about that.”