Yann Ehrlacher was pleased to qualify as the top Lynk & Co driver in the FIA World Touring Car Cup in Aragón in Spain, despite being three tenths off the pace in Q3.
Reigning champion Ehrlacher had topped second practice earlier in the day, and in qualifying he continued to be near the sharp end, finishing Q1 as the second-best Cyan Racing driver behind his uncle Yvan Muller.
Having again trailed Muller in Q2, Ehrlacher emerged from Q3 as the top driver in the blue cars, a tenth quicker than his uncle but three tenths of a second behind the leading Comtoyou Racing Audi of Gilles Magnus.
Despite the gap to the front, Ehrlacher was pleased with his qualifying efforts in the Spanish heat.
“First of all, well done to the gents next to me,” said Ehrlacher. “It’s a tough track and when you have Q1, Q2 and Q3 you have to nail the lap in every section of the qualifying, so it’s quite difficult in those conditions with the car we have. It’s quite tough and you really need to not make mistakes to put it all together.
“It’s easy to be half a tenth off if you start to make mistakes, so it was really important that we reached this Q3 with two cars actually, with Yvan, and that’s quite good for the teams’ championship.
“I think Ma [Qing Hua] is starting the reverse-grid race from pole, which is even better for the team. I’m really looking forward for tomorrow, nothing is done yet but we’ve put a step forward already this weekend.”
The 25-year-old had expected some of his other rivals, including the Hyundai drivers, to be a bit closer to the front on Saturday.
“There were some cars we were expecting to be a bit quicker than what they delivered in this qualifying, to be honest. But actually it was close enough…
“It was actually quite intense and we worked quite hard from the beginning of the free practice sessions to adapt to the track evolution as well, because of the thunder storm the track was quite shit and we had to deal with it.
“We are pleased to be here tonight.”