TCR World Tour: Ehrlacher leads Cyan Racing 1-2 in Marrakech qualifying
Yann Ehrlacher has claimed pole position for the second meeting of the Kumho FIA TCR World Tour at Marrakech, after the Lynk & Co Cyan Racing driver blitzed the time sheets with a lap of 49.641, outqualifying his teammate Santiago Urrutia by three-tenths at the short circuit
It was a tough Q1 session for the Moroccan drivers, with Mehdi Bennani clipping a wall and damaging his Team Clairet Sport CUPRA Leon VZ, while Sami Taoufik was forced to stop early, suffering from damaged rear suspension on his Volcano Motorsport Audi.
Mikel Azcona led the first part of the session with a time of 50.069, while in Q2, the Lynk & Co cars turned up the wick and broke straight into the 49s, with Ehrlacher leading Urrutia right from his first lap. Their closest rival was initially Néstor Girolami in the BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse Elantra before he was outpaced by teammate Norbert Michelisz just before the halfway point.
By this time, the star of the session was guest driver Julien Piguet, who was just a couple of tenths off the pace on his TCR debut in the Audi run by Team Clairet Sport.
Unfortunately, Piguet’s session came to an end with five minutes to go when he clipped the tyre stack at T7, damaging his car’s front suspension. When the session resumed, the focus was on the ultra-close fight for tenth place, which would seal the reversed grid pole position for Race 2.
Cyan Racing’s Ma Qing Hua improved to ninth, which put the Audi of John Filippi at risk in tenth. When the Frenchman improved his time and moved up to fifth, this put Ma on the provisional pole, but the Honda of Marco Butti and the Lynk & Co of Thed Björk were still trying to improve. With two tenths separating them, Björk could only improve to 11th and just missed the cut, leaving Ma on pole for Race 2, and Butti down in 12th for both races. Ma will start Race 2 ahead of wild card driver Dusan Borković in the GOAT Racing Honda.
Marrakech qualifying:
- Yann Ehrlacher (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03 FL), 49.641
- Santiago Urrutia (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03 FL), 49.900
- Norbert Michelisz (BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse, Hyundai Elantra N), 49.939
Points standings:
- N. Michelisz, 69 pts
- Y. Ehrlacher, 52
- S. Urrutia, 49