Yann Ehrlacher was left frustrated after the second World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) race at Ningbo, which saw the Münnich Motorsport driver first lose a potential podium before being taken out of the race on the last lap.
Ehrlacher had been running in third for much of the race, before he went off the circuit whilst battling with Comtoyou Racing’s Frédéric Vervisch on lap ten.
That dropped both drivers down the order, but Ehrlacher came off the worst, sliding down to tenth position and facing the prospect of only scoring one point.
But Ehrlacher was then wiped out of the race when Boutsen Ginion Racing’s Ma Qing Hua clattered into him at Turn 9, breaking his Honda’s left-rear suspension and forcing him not only to retire from the race, but to also start race three from the pits, losing him his eighth place grid spot.
“I was running easily in P3 and we had a big issue with the rear axle, with the spring or something like this, so I was trying to defend my position as much as I could,” said Ehrlacher. “Everybody knows Vervisch but actually it was not that fair – we had some contact from both sides and I lost ten positions or something like this.
“I was still in the points and I don’t know what’s happened with the Chinese guy [Ma] – if he just forgot to brake or had an issue or whatever.
“But he fucked my race because the rear left is completely fucked. It’s like this – a lot of points gone for nothing, but that’s racing.
“Sometimes you give and sometimes you get, and some guys give more than they get. I don’t want to speak about this now because maybe I will say something I will regret later on.”
Ma apologised to Ehrlacher for the contact which took him out of the race, claiming that he simply didn’t see the Frenchman as he sought to pass Pepe Oriola’s CUPRA.
“There were some nice battles in race two and in the second half of the race the pace was within a tenth or two of the leaders,” said Ma.
“The incident with Yann Ehrlacher was unfortunate. I didn’t see where his car was because I was overtaking Pepe Oriola and his car blocked my view of Yann.
“I’m sorry for him because he was totally innocent in the contact. The guys did an amazing job to try and fix the car, but time just ran out.
“Still, I’ve learned a lot and will put that into practice in Wuhan.”