Photo: Cyan Racing

Ehrlacher ends seven-year wait for redemption with Marrakech pole

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Yann Ehrlacher made his World Touring Car Championship debut in Marrakech seven years ago and was fastest in qualifying, but was removed from the results after failing to visit the weighbridge. This weekend he gets a chance to make up for that.

Back then the Frenchman was 20 years old and driving an RC Motorsport-run Lada Vesta WTCC, which he took to a victory and two other podiums.

In the years since he has raced for Münnich Motorsport and Cyan Racing, his current home, winning two World Touring Car Cup titles but never getting the chance after 2019 to return to Morocco and go for pole there again until now.

Although the Moulay El Hassan street circuit has a very different layout to when last raced on, the shortness of the new 1.701 km configuration being used by the TCR World Tour has made it quick to learn and Ehrlacher proved that in his Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR.

He was quickest in the second practice session, was just 0.024 seconds off top spot in the first segment of qualifying, then in the second segment lowered the pace to 49.641 to take Race 1 pole by 0.259s.

“It was a good quali. Well operated by all the Cyan team. We worked a lot on the car to put this lap together. It was not easy at all,” said Ehrlacher afterwards.

“We really managed to get the maximum out of the car at the right moment to put this lap together. So very happy about it. And now we will need to put our head on the race tomorrow. I don’t know if you remember a few years ago in 2017 I was supposed to start from pole one race and I got disqualified. And it was my first ever race in World Touring Cars, so I’m happy to start now a few years later on pole position.”

The points for pole has lifted Ehrlacher from eighth to second in the TCR World Tour standings. He is now on a tally of 52 points after the first two races and two qualifying sessions of the campaign, 17 behind BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse’s Norbert Michelisz.

Race 1 in Marrakech takes place at 11:30 local time (WEST) on Saturday.