Photo: TCR

Yann Ehrlacher takes comfortable opening TCR World Tour win in Morocco

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Yann Ehrlacher produced a dominant display from pole position to take victory in the opening FIA TCR World Tour race of the weekend at Marrakech.

The double World Touring Car Cup champion was largely unchallenged throughout the 36-lap race, leading from start to finish and heading home his Lynk & Co team-mate Santiago Urrutia by just over three-tenths of a second.

Norbert Michelisz completed the podium in his BRC Squadra Corse Hyundai Elantra N TCR ahead of team-mate Néstor Girolami, despite running with 40kg of compensation weight.

Off the start, polesitter Ehrlacher got the jump on Cyan Racing team-mate Urrutia to comfortably lead into the first corner, with Michelisz following in suite ahead of his BRC Squadra Corse Hyundai team-mate Girolami.

Further back, Marco Butti struggled to get off the grid in his Goat Racing Honda Civic Type R, dropping to the back of the field from 12th.

The opening stages were cagey as Ehrlacher began to edge away slightly from Urrutia to the tune of around a second, but the Frenchman was pegged back as Urrutia was chased hard by Michelisz behind.

With overtaking at a premium on the narrow and short Moroccan circuit, the order remained the same throughout with Ehrlacher controlling the pace over Urrutia. Behind the pair of Lynk & Cos, both Michelisz and Girolami impressively kept up with the leaders despite running extra compensation weight.

Attrition was high in the early stages of the race, as Dušan Borković was forced into retirement with smoke coming from the front of his Goat Racing Honda Civic Type-R. The Serbian driver had endured contact with the Audi of Sami Taoufik which had caused left-rear damage as well. Taoufik received a five-second post-race penalty for his part in the incident.

Also in the wars was the Audi of Julien Piguet who suffered gearbox issues, while Butti’s race was ended prematurely with front-end damage.

While the action at the front was constant, the battle for the lower positions in the top 10 was as fierce as ever, with the Cyan Racing Lynk & Co of Thed Björk all over the back of Esteban Guerrieri’s Honda.

Björk, perhaps frustrated with the lack of overtaking opportunities, made an ambitious lunge down the inside of Guerrieri, making contact and pitching the Honda into a half spin before taking the place. He was penalised five-seconds for the move, while team-mate Ma Qinghua escaped punishment for a similarly aggressive move on Guerrieri the following lap.

Sami Taoufik had initially benefitted from Ma’s panel-bashing move on Guerrieri, leaping two places but the Audi driver had to make do with 10th after his penalty.

Ehrlacher, however, was untroubled as he took the win from Urrutia, with Michelisz beating Girolami to third.

Mikel Azcona prevailed in a race-long scrap with John Filippi to take fifth place, with Ma finsihing seventh.

Despite his five-second penalty, Björk still finished ahead of Guerrieri in eighth, with Taoufik rounding out the top 10.

The second TCR World Tour race in Marrakech is scheduled to take place later on today at 15:30 local time/16:20 CEST.