Yann Ehrlacher takes pole position for TCR World Tour opener in Uruguay
Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher produced a sensational Q2 effort to claim pole position for the opening TCR World Tour race of the weekend at the El Pinar circuit in Uruguay.
The Lynk & Co driver set a best time of 1m20.227 to emerge nearly four-tenths of a second quicker than Hyundai’s Mikel Azcona as the Elantras hit back following the former’s domination of free practice.
TCR World Tour points leader Norbert Michelisz qualified third on the grid for the opener, while Ma Qing Hua will start the reversed-grid second race from pole after setting the 10th quickest time.
Earlier rain which had affected both free practice sessions had disappeared, leaving a dry but green track for the 25-car grid in qualifying.
Azcona was the early pace-setter with a time of 1m22.107 that was half a second clear of Ma Qing Hua and Thed Björk.
His BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse team-mate Norbert Michelisz then moved to the top of the times as Ma improved to second shortly before the first of two red flag stoppages in Q1.
That was caused by the Squadra Martino Honda Civic Type-R of Enrique Maglione going off at the chicane and getting stuck in the gravel trap.
The session restarted with 11 minutes remaining, with Björk heading to the top of the times and Ehrlacher improving to second.
A number of cars had excursions off-track, including Azcona who took to the grass after setting the fastest time, while Marco Butti had to reverse out of the gravel following a brief touch with the wall.
Ma then went quickest ahead of Michelisz and Azcona but the session was stopped again after a heavy crash for Thiago Vivacqua in his Toyota Corolla with barely two minutes remaining.
With just one flying lap remaining at the restart, both Goat Racing Honda Civics of Dušan Borković and Marco Butti failed to make it into the top 12 for Q2, with Juan Angel Rosso (Toyota) and Pedro Cardoso (Peugeot) made the cut.
Ehrlacher set the pace at the start of Q2, with a time of 1m20.409 to put himself over three-tenths quickers than Girolami and Azcona.
In the final two minutes, Girolami was forced to abandon his last flying attempt after appearing to clip the tyre barrier on the apex of the final corner, subsequently running wide onto the wet curve.
Team-mate Michelisz capitalised on that mistake immediately by improving to second with a minute left on the clock.
Azcona then found a late improvement in his Hyundai to sneak second as FP1 pace-setter Ma Qing Hua could only manage 10th quickest, but was rewarded with pole position for race two.
Behind Girolami, Björk qualified fifth ahead of Santiago Urrutia, while Esteban Guerrieri was the best placed Honda in seventh.
John Filippi was eighth in his Audi, with Pedro Cardoso and Ma rounding out the top 10.
Race one at El Pinar is scheduled to take place tomorrow at 10:45 local time (15:45 CEST).
