Disappointed Yann Ehrlacher laments tyre choice as La Pedrera pole evaporates

TCR World Tour points leader Yann Ehrlacher was left deeply disappointed after dropping from pole to finish sixth in the first race of the weekend at La Pedrera.

“There was nothing good from this race, actually, even the start was bad as we started on the wet side while P2 was full dry and I lost the lead,” said Ehrlacher.

The Lynk & Co 03 TCR driver was overtaken by Norbert Michelisz at the start and then dropped a further four positions before the end of the race, lamenting his choice of slicks at the front and wets at the rear.

“I think I took a wrong decision on the tyres, but I covered the choice from the top five, so I went the same as them,” said Ehrlacher.

“But then, even as we had the same strategy, we dropped a lot in terms of performance after a few laps. They managed to survive longer and we need to analyse this. After the pace that we’ve had since the first time we set our wheels on this track, it’s very disappointing to not win this race and we lost a lot of points.”

Title rivals Mikel Azcona and Michelisz of Hyundai claimed a strong 1-2 finish, closing the gap in the championship to 23 and 16 points respectively.

Ehrlacher will start tenth in the second race later today, with Michelisz and Azcona right infront of him in positions nine and eight.