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Autosport
Autosport
Damien Smith

WTCR Vila Real: Urrutia beats Ehrlacher to pole in Cyan Lynk & Co 1-2

The Uruguayan was the penultimate driver to run in the Q3 shootout, hitting the top with a time of 1m59.626s. Reigning double champion Ehrlacher ran last and was fastest of all in the first sector, only to drop time in the final two to miss out to his team-mate and title rival.

“I’m super-happy, it’s always good to be on pole position,” said Urrutia. “Thank you to Cyan Performance, they gave me a really good car. It was a tough day learning the track, but the guys delivered the best for me.

“The last time I was on pole was a long time ago in Aragon, so I’m happy. Now we need to look to the strategy for tomorrow.”

Ehrlacher was disappointed to miss out on pole, especially by such a small margin: “It’s good for the team. We’ve got 10 points today [for setting the fastest time overall in qualifying], so it’s quite a good achievement. It’s the way it is. My performance was really good.”

Munnich Motorsport’s Nestor Girolami, in a Honda still carrying the maximum success ballast of 40kg, pulled out two big laps to progress beyond Q1 and make it into Q3, then banked third on the grid for race one.

Nestor Girolami, ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport, Honda Civic Type R TCR (Photo by: WTCR)

Girolami also addressed concerns over sandbagging from rival teams in qualifying, in order to maintain a competitive Balance of Performance for future rounds. Although BRC Squadra Corse’s Norbert Michelisz made it into Q3 and qualified fifth, team-mate Mikel Azcona – who holds a 34-point lead at the top of the WTCR standings – was only eighth fastest. The pair also chose to qualify tactically in the previous round last weekend at Aragon.

“What we see from the others they are, let’s say, playing more with the rules we have this year,” said Girolami. “We are just pushing the limit, as motorsport should be. In qualifying they go three, four or five tenths slower, which is something they need to look at for the future. But anyway, I’m super-happy for the team, myself and what we achieved today.”

Ma Qing Hua was fourth fastest ahead of Michelisz, while Comtoyou Audi’s Mehdi Bennani and Zengo’s Rob Huff just missed out on making the cut for Q3 by going sixth and seventh in Q2.

Cyan Racing’s Yvan Muller was 10th fastest to ensure a Lynk & Co will also start the partially reversed-grid race two from pole position, for what will be the 100th WTCR race held since the series was created in 2018.

Ex-Formula 1 driver Tiago Monteiro was hoping to shine at his home race, but failed to progress beyond Q1. He will line up 13th for the two races in his Team Engstler Honda.

WTCR Vila Real - Qualifying Results

Q3

Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval
1 Uruguay Santiago Urrutia Lynk & Co 3 1'59.626    
2 France Yann Ehrlacher Lynk & Co 2 1'59.675 0.049 0.049
3 Argentina Nestor Girolami Honda 3 1'59.879 0.253 0.204
4 China Ma Qing Hua Lynk & Co 3 1'59.880 0.254 0.001
5 Hungary Norbert Michelisz Hyundai 3 2'00.101 0.475 0.221

Q2

Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval
1 France Yann Ehrlacher Lynk & Co 5 1'59.543    
2 Uruguay Santiago Urrutia Lynk & Co 5 1'59.555 0.012 0.012
3 China Ma Qing Hua Lynk & Co 5 1'59.799 0.256 0.244
4 Argentina Nestor Girolami Honda 5 1'59.846 0.303 0.047
5 Hungary Norbert Michelisz Hyundai 5 1'59.995 0.452 0.149
6 Morocco Mehdi Bennani Audi 3 2'00.017 0.474 0.022
7 United Kingdom Rob Huff CUPRA 6 2'00.048 0.505 0.031
8 Spain Mikel Azcona Hyundai 5 2'00.129 0.586 0.081
9 Hungary Attila Tassi Honda 5 2'00.225 0.682 0.096
10 France Yvan Muller Lynk & Co 5 2'00.234 0.691 0.009
11 Belgium Gilles Magnus Audi 5 2'00.333 0.790 0.099
12 Sweden Thed Björk Lynk & Co 4 2'00.368 0.825 0.035

Q1

Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval
1 Spain Mikel Azcona Hyundai 8 2'00.063    
2 France Yvan Muller Lynk & Co 8 2'00.108 0.045 0.045
3 Hungary Attila Tassi Honda 11 2'00.146 0.083 0.038
4 France Yann Ehrlacher Lynk & Co 6 2'00.155 0.092 0.009
5 Hungary Norbert Michelisz Hyundai 8 2'00.158 0.095 0.003
6 United Kingdom Rob Huff CUPRA 8 2'00.165 0.102 0.007
7 Morocco Mehdi Bennani Audi 12 2'00.222 0.159 0.057
8 Uruguay Santiago Urrutia Lynk & Co 7 2'00.321 0.258 0.099
9 Belgium Gilles Magnus Audi 10 2'00.323 0.260 0.002
10 Argentina Nestor Girolami Honda 10 2'00.398 0.335 0.075
11 China Ma Qing Hua Lynk & Co 9 2'00.492 0.429 0.094
12 Sweden Thed Björk Lynk & Co 10 2'00.784 0.721 0.292
13 Portugal Tiago Monteiro Honda 12 2'00.826 0.763 0.042
14 Argentina Esteban Guerrieri Honda 9 2'00.879 0.816 0.053
15 France Nathanael Berthon Audi 10 2'01.235 1.172 0.356
16 Netherlands Tom Coronel Audi 11 2'01.336 1.273 0.101
17 Hungary Daniel Nagy CUPRA 11 2'02.398 2.335 1.062
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