Photo: TCR World Tour

Yann Ehrlacher heads Cyan Racing 1-2-3 in thrilling final Mid-Ohio race

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Yann Ehrlacher prevailed in a thrilling final FIA TCR World Tour race of the weekend at Mid-Ohio, heading a Lynk & Co Cyan Racing 1-2-3 with team-mates Ma Qing Hua and Thed Björk.

Honda driver Marco Butti started from pole and headed the field as the lights went out ahead of a fast-starting Ehrlacher, who snatched second from Dusan Borkovic heading into Turn 1.

Just like in the first race, the man on the move was Thed Björk who started from eighth place on the grid.

The Swede was soon right on the rear bumper of his team-mate Santiago Urrutia, who let him through to fourth place on lap six.

Björk then quickly caught GOAT Racing driver Borkovic in the fight for third place, making the move at Turn 9 two laps later with some contact.

Next up was Urrutia who passed Borkovic in the penultimate corner on the same lap as the Honda driver made a mistake and went wide with a big slide. This also allowed Ma past for fifth place.

Björk then reeled in team-mate Ehrlacher who was stuck behind Honda driver Butti in the fight for the lead. Ehrlacher let Björk past on lap 11 to fight Butti for the lead.

Butti defended sternly and it all kicked off on lap 13 as Björk put his nose on the inside of the Honda driver at Turn 9, getting past for the lead with some contact between the two which also allowed Ehrlacher past for second place.

Butti tried to get back past by going onto the grass into Turn 11, but had to slot in behind and instead came under fire from Urrutia.

Björk then let team-mate Ehrlacher past for the lead a couple of corners later, with Butti trying to follow through, resulting in even more contact between them. Urrutia then tried to follow through, kicking off several corners of wheel-banging between Butti and Urrutia.

Butti’s GOAT Racing team-mate Esteban Guerrieri and Hyndai’s Mikel Azcona took advantage of the chaos to slip past and snatch fourth and fifth place respectively.

As the dust settled, Ehrlacher won by three tenths ahead of Ma and nine tenths ahead of Björk.

Guerrieri finished fourth, Azcona fifth and points leader Norbert Michelisz sixth.

Borkovic survived to finish seventh, Urrutia eighth, Néstor Girolami ninth and pole sitter Butti limped home in tenth.

Michelisz keeps his lead, heading Ehrlacher by 20 points and Azcona by 24 points while Björk has climbed to fourth, 28 points from the lead.

The next FIA TCR World Tour round will take place at Interlagos in Brazil on July 20-21.