Photo: TCR World Tour

Yann Ehrlacher claims lights-to-flag victory in Vila Real opener

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Pole sitter Yann Ehrlacher dominated the first FIA TCR World Tour race of the weekend on the streets of Vila Real, heading home a Lynk & Co Cyan Racing 1-2 with Santiago Urrutia.

Viktor Andersson (Lynk & Co) headed into the pits at the end of the formation lap, as did Ignacio Montenegro, due to technical issues.

Ehrlacher claimed the lead at the start, with his team-mate Urrutia moving to the inside to defend from Honda’s Esteban Guerrieri who was third.

SP Compètition driver Aurélien Comte (Cupra) overtook Hyundai’s Mikel Azcona at the start to take fourth position, with Norbert Michelisz settling in sixth ahead of the Lynk & Cos of Ma Qing Hua and Thed Björk.

Local hero Daniel Texeira and Honda’s Ignacio Montenegro received drive-through penalties for incorrect grid positions.

Further back, team-mates at GOAT Racing Marco Butti and Dusan Borkovic battled for ninth place ahead of the recovering Néstor Girolami (Hyundai), who had started from the back of the grid.

Butti came to the pits at the end of lap seven due to an issue and later rejoined the race. Half a lap later, GOAT Racing team-mate Borkovic limped back to the pits with a tyre issue.

Ma closed the gap to Michelisz on lap eight, with the Hungarian now under pressure from both the Chinese driver and Björk.

Azcona came into the pits from fifth place with a left-rear puncture on lap eleven, with the BRC Squadra Corse mechanics performing a pit stop for the Spaniard to return to the track, finishing eleventh.

After a static race, Ehrlacher claimed the victory with a margin of one second ahead of Urrutia and two ahead of Guerrieri.

Comte came home in fourth, with Michelisz next followed by Ma, Björk and Girolami. Montenegro was ninth, overtaking Texeira on the very last lap.

Ehrlacher has extended his lead in the drivers’ championship to 238 points, heading Honda driver Guerrieri by 31 points and team-mate Urrutia by 37 points.

The start of Race 2 is scheduled for 17:05 local time, 18:05 CEST.