Yann Ehrlacher: “I’ve never seen such a big gap in qualifying”

Yann Ehrlacher extended his championship lead after the FIA TCR World Tour round in Australia despite carrying 40 kilos of compensation weight and an increase of 20 kilos in Balance of Performance weight, but says he is baffled over the difference in pace between competitors.

“It was a good weekend considering that we were coming in with 40 kilos of compensation weight and 20 kilos in BoP change,” said Ehrlacher to TouringCarTimes.

“But we did a good job in maximising the car, I don’t think I’ve ever been this close in my life to extracting the maximum of a car.”

The Lynk & Co Cyan Racing driver qualified third, finished third in the first race and sixth in the final race.

“It was unexpected to get third in Q2, but a big reason to that I think is that Hyundai had one of their cars go for the reversed grid and that the Hondas seemingly made a mistake with the setup,” said Ehrlacher.

“I’ve never seen such a big gap between first and third in qualifying, I was 1.2 seconds from Azcona. Then, I got a good start in the first race and had a tough job keeping one of the Australian Hyundais behind me, they were so quick on the straight.”

Ehrlacher was 27 points ahead of main title rival and Honda driver Esteban Guerrieri ahead of the weekend and left The Bend 36 points ahead of him.

Reigning champion Norbert Michelisz was the top scoring Hyundai driver in Australia with a total of 50 points compared to Ehrlacher’s 46.

And the BRC Hyundai driver, who has climbed to fifth place overall, says that the competitors were too strong in Race 2.

“Qualifying went very well for us, I finished P2 and was very happy about that, especially because the boys were working all night, so they really deserved it. The car felt good, I did a good lap and then I won Race 1,” said Michelisz.

“Néstor won Race 2, a dream result. It was an eventful race, I tried to do my best with Mikel to gain some places, but the other cars were a bit too strong for us this time.”

Michelisz is currently trailing Ehrlacher by 98 points with a total of 285 points still left to be fought for during the final three race weekends.

“Although we are far behind in the championship, we really need to be able to maximise every possibility and Saturday was a day when we did that so we can be proud of ourselves,” said Michelisz.

“Nevertheless, a lot of important points, I scored the most points this weekend, which is a very good achievement considering there are a lot of races to go. I really hope we can keep this momentum.”

While Michelisz will carry 40kg in the next race at Inje Speedium, Ehrlacher will carry 30kg.

“We are going to Korea with 30 kilos, but that means that we are scoring well,” said Ehrlacher.

“I think it is going to be tough, but we have done a good job so far and we need to focus on our selves. I’m happy to be in this position, but it is still a very long way to go and it can go either way.”