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Who is WTCC winner Yann Ehrlacher?

Who is WTCC winner Yann Ehrlacher?

22/07/2017 06:00

Yann Ehrlacher, who claimed his breakthrough FIA World Touring Car Championship victory in Argentina last weekend, is the 21-year-old nephew of Yvan Muller, the four-time WTCC champion.

And the family sporting heritage doesn’t end there. His mother, Cathy, was an accomplished racer in her own right, while his father, Yves, was a professional footballer in their native France.

Despite the family involvement, Ehrlacher was a late starter in motorsport: “I didn’t do karting, it was only school, school, school. At 16, I started in a small French series and I did only some one-shot races but I did quite well.

“After that, I left to race in Germany in the Scirocco Cup alongside the DTM – which was also front-wheel drive, but it was more like a normal road car. After I came back to France with Yvan and I won the French Supercar Championship, but the ‘lite’ championship, then the year later I won the big series. Last year I was driving in LMP3, and finally I am here in the WTCC.”

Ehrlacher made an instant impact with the third fastest time in one of the official pre-season tests at Monza in March following a late deal to join the privateer RC Motorsport team.

Carrying the same number 68 used by Yvan Muller, Ehrlacher qualified on the reverse-grid pole at WTCC Race of Morocco, the first event of the season. And when asked live on Eurosport how much pressure he was feeling as a result, he responded by saying: “The only pressure I feel is in my tyres”, such is Ehrlacher’s obvious self-belief.

While he would ultimately be put to the back of the grid after he accidentally missed a weight check, he scored his first points in the next event in Italy and has finished in the top 10 on a further seven occasions, making it through to Qualifying Q2 five times to boot.

Combining his WTCC campaign with a European Le Mans assault with his uncle’s eponymous team, Ehrlacher is destined for the top.

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