Yann Ehrlacher secures pole position in Uruguay

Yann Ehrlacher kept Cyan Racing at the top of the times in qualifying for the FIA TCR World Tour at El Pinar in Uruguay, comfortably ahead of Hyundai’s Mikel Azcona in second.

The Lynk & Co drivers had dominated the times earlier in the day, and the strong pace continued into qualifying, as Ma Qing Hua headed up a twice red-flagged Q1.

The first stoppage came after Squadra Martino’s Enrique Maglione went off nine minutes into the session, with team-mate Rodrigo Baptista and BRC Racing’s Azcona having also slid off the circuit onto the mud early on, with recent rain making anywhere off the asphalt a treacherous place to be.

The second red flag came out with just two and a half minutes to go when Cobra Racing’s Thiago Vivacqua went off into the barriers and damaged his Toyota Corolla.

But on a dry circuit, Ma was able to lap with the best time of Q1 in 1 minute 20.564 seconds, some six and a half seconds quicker than the inclement practice session beforehand.

In Q2, Ehrlacher put in the fastest time of 1:20.227 to edge out Azcona by a notable 0.379 seconds.

After holding the top four places in a wet first practice, Cyan Racing were not able to repeat the feat in qualifying. Instead, third and fourth went to the BRC Hyundai duo of Norbert Michelisz and Néstor Girolami, although the latter had to abort his final Q2 run after clipping a tyre stack on the inside of the final corner as he geared up to start a flying lap.

Thed Björk was fifth in his Lynk & Co, ahead of team-mate and home hero Santiago Urrutia in sixth.

GOAT Racing’s Esteban Guerrieri was the best of the Honda drivers in seventh, in what was ultimately a disappointing session for the Civic racers as the Argentine found himself as the sole representative in Q2.

Volcano Motorsport’s John Filippi put the only Audi in the field in eighth, with the top ten completed by PMO Racing’s Pedro Cardoso, the top TCR South America driver, and Cyan Racing’s Ma.

That means the reverse-grid pole position for Sunday’s second race goes to Ma, with Cardoso’s Peugeot alongside.

Ma was later handed a five-place grid penalty for the opening race, for impeding Azcona and Girolami in Q2, but it will not affect his reverse-grid pole for race two.

Toyota’s Matías Rossi was 11^th, ahead of the Paladini Racing Toyota of Juan Ángel Rosso in 12^th.

Two TCR World Tour regulars failed to get out of Q1 – Marco Butti was 13^th fastest and had suffered an off which saw him kiss the barriers, whilst team-mate Dušan Borković was only 18^th, over two seconds off the Q1 pace.

Race one is scheduled to get underway at 10:10 local time on Sunday (14:10 BST, 15:10 CEST).

Q2 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	168		Yann EHRLACHER	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	6	1:20.227	–
2	196		Mikel AZCONA	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	6	1:20.606	0.379
3	105		Norbert MICHELISZ	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	5	1:20.641	0.414
4	129		Néstor GIROLAMI	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	4	1:20.711	0.484
5	111		Thed BJÖRK	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	6	1:20.729	0.502
6	112		Santiago URRUTIA	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	5	1:21.050	0.823
7	186		Esteban GUERRIERI	GOAT Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	5	1:21.279	1.052
8	127		John FILIPPI	Volcano Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	6	1:21.322	1.095
9	43		Pedro CARDOSO	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	6	1:21.404	1.177
10	155		MA Qing Hua	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	6	1:21.419	1.192
11	17		Matías ROSSI	Toyota Team Argentina	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	5	1:21.432	1.205
12	16		Juan Ángel ROSSO	Paladini Racing	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	6	1:22.062	1.835

Q1 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	155		MA Qing Hua	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	11	1:20.564	–
2	196		Mikel AZCONA	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	11	1:20.761	0.197
3	105		Norbert MICHELISZ	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	11	1:20.826	0.262
4	129		Néstor GIROLAMI	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	11	1:20.987	0.423
5	168		Yann EHRLACHER	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	12	1:21.150	0.586
6	111		Thed BJÖRK	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	10	1:21.358	0.794
7	112		Santiago URRUTIA	Lynk & Co Cyan Racing	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	11	1:21.514	0.950
8	186		Esteban GUERRIERI	GOAT Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	11	1:21.702	1.138
9	16		Juan Ángel ROSSO	Paladini Racing	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	11	1:21.871	1.307
10	43		Pedro CARDOSO	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	10	1:21.959	1.395
11	127		John FILIPPI	Volcano Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	1:22.026	1.462
12	17		Matías ROSSI	Toyota Team Argentina	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	11	1:22.027	1.463
13	199		Marco BUTTI	GOAT Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	10	1:22.278	1.714
14	47		Norberto FONTANA	Squadra Martino Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	11	1:22.323	1.759
15	60		Juan Manuel CASELLA	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	12	1:22.337	1.773
16	3		Rodrigo BAPTISTA	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	11	1:22.411	1.847
17	8		Rafael SUZUKI	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	10	1:22.527	1.963
18	62		Dušan BORKOVIĆ	GOAT Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	9	1:22.641	2.077
19	77		Raphael REIS	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	10	1:22.811	2.247
20	28		Galid OSMAN	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	9	1:22.906	2.342
21	34		Fabio CASAGRANDE	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	12	1:23.579	3.015
22	18		Carlos SILVA	Paladini Racing	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	12	1:23.987	3.423
23	7		Thiago VIVACQUA	Cobra Racing Team	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	8	1:24.234	3.670
24	37		Guilherme REISCHL	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	10	1:27.467	6.903
25	15		Enrique MAGLIONE	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	2	No time	N/A