Photo: TCR World Tour

Yann Ehrlacher did not expect to increase points lead at Monza

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Yann Ehrlacher headed to the FIA TCR World Tour race weekend at Monza with the maximum 40 kilos of compensation weight and expected to lose the championship lead, a lead he instead increased by nine points.

“We expected to lose the championship lead this weekend, but instead we increased our lead over Esteban (Guerrieri) by nine points and I am quite pleased about that,” said Ehrlacher to TouringCarTimes.

The Lynk & Co Cyan Racing driver qualified fourth for the first race of the weekend and finished a solid second behind reigning champion Norbert Michelisz.

The second race saw the Frenchman starting seventh and finishing ninth.

“We found some pace during the first qualifying and opted to go all in instead of the reversed grid and we couldn’t do better than fourth with the compensation weight,” said Ehrlacher.

“I am happy with second place in the main race, scoring good points and managing the tyres. Then I wanted to play it safe in the second race and it was more about damage control.”

Ehrlacher leads the drivers’ standings on 193 points while Honda driver Guerrieri is second on 177 points heading into the next round at Vila Real on July 5-6.

“I will carry 30 kilos in Vila Real, so 10 kilos less. Hopefully we can have a good weekend there, but to be honest I don’t think we can fight for pole. But we should be able to be in the top five and score well,” said Ehrlacher.