Yann Ehrlacher laments start bog-down and lack of top speed

Yann Ehrlacher says he does not know what happened at the disastrous start that caused him to drop down the field in Race 1 of the TCR World Tour finale in Macau, as the Frenchman’s title aspirations suffered a major setback.

Ehrlacher lined up on the front row alongside points leader and eventual race winner Norbert Michelisz, but bogged down as the lights went out.

After slipping well into the lower midfield, Ehrlacher was let past by his Lynk & Co Cyan Racing team-mates to eventually salvage sixth place, but has now dropped to 20 points behind Michelisz going into the final race of the season on Sunday where there is 30 points available.

“I don’t know what happened at the start,” Ehrlacher said. “We need to analyse why. The reaction time was pretty good, the practice start before the race was very good as well, but then for some reason at the real start I bogged down. I almost stalled, and by the times the revs came up I was almost dead last.

“My team-mates helped me to get some places back and I overtook some cars to bring it home P6.”

Ehrlacher also reiterated his frustrations at the lack of top speed that’s holding him and Cyan Racing in Macau.

“The pace was OK, but the others are way too quick for us on the straights,” Ehrlacher said. “We lose half a second, almost one second in sector one with one corner, so it’s a bit ridiculous to be honest. We take all the risk we can in the corners, but we really struggle to overtake, so it’s tough.

“We lost a lot of points today. It’s not over, but it’s not going to be easy.”

Ehrlacher will start eighth in Race 2 on Sunday, two slots ahead of Michelisz on the partially reversed grid.