Yann Ehrlacher: “That’s not touring car racing”

Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher hit out at Comtoyou Racing’s Nathanël Berthon’s tactics in Race 1 at Motorland Aragón, with the reigning champion expecting the Audi driver to receive a penalty for hitting him.

Berthon started from the front row of the grid but was slow off the blocks, with Ehrlacher climbing up to second place.

Both remained close to each other but, on lap two, the Audi driver made contact with the Lynk & Co driver, overtaking for third place while Ehrlacher lost two places.

“We did our best in P6, and I hope it will be a bit better with some penalty applying,” Ehrlacher told TouringCarTimes in reference to the incident.

“There has to be some contact, because it’s touring cars, I’ve driven with these drivers and there have been a lot of battles, but today wasn’t fair at all.

“Pushing someone and gaining the place is one thing, pushing someone and making him lose two places, that’s not fair anymore,” added the reigning champion. “It’s touring cars, there has to be some contact, but that’s not contact, that’s clashing.”

Ehrlacher also stated he was struggling with a lack of straight line speed.

“It was, as I expected, a tough and difficult race. It’s difficult to keep up in such difficult conditions with cars that are much lighter than us and with 2.5% more of power, but I don’t want to go into too much politics,” concluded Ehrlacher.