WTCR 2020: The nephew before the uncle 🎥
POINTS FOR SWISS TEAM Yann Ehrlacher and Yvan Muller secured a double victory for an Alsatian family in the FIA WTCR. The Swiss Renault team Vukovic Motorsport performed respectably. Yann Ehrlacher, the youngest touring car world champion to date, closed the bag in Aragon. The highlights also show Guerreri's accident. With races 16 to 18 at the Race [...]
Yann Ehrlacher became the youngest touring car world champion to date to seal the deal in Aragon. The highlights also show Guerreri's accident.
Races 16 to 18 at the Race of Aragón in Spain marked the end of the FIA World Touring Cars Championship according to TCR regulations. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, it only took place over six weekends in just over two months in Europe.
Decision within nine weeks
It began on the second weekend in September with two races in Zolder (B). Two weeks later, two more or less wet races also took place as part of the Nürburgring 24 Hours.
Three sprints were held on two consecutive weekends at the Slovakia Ring and Hungaroring, before Motorland Aragón hosted two more triple-headers.
Guerreri against Ehrlacher
No fewer than eleven drivers stood on the podium in 18 races, but only two more than once. Former Jenzer junior Esteban Guerreri from Argentina crossed the finish line first in Münnich Motorsport's Honda Civic Type R TCR in the first race at the Nürburgring, twice in Hungary and most recently once in Aragón. He led the most race laps of anyone (38) during the season.
But in the end, someone else was celebrating. Yann Ehrlacher, who formed the Cyan Racing Lynk & Co. two-car team with four-time touring car world champion Yann Muller, led the standings from the first weekend. He took his first win of the season in the second Zolder race, triumphed once on the Nordschleife and won again at the Hungaroring.
Uncle Yvan as a teacher
Ehrlacher is the 24-year-old son of former racing driver Cathy Muller and the nephew of Yvan Muller. At his own request, the Alsatian has taught him everything over the past few years - apparently including the fact that you don't always have to be the fastest, but above all be consistent in a championship.
Ehrlacher scored points in all races and was already crowned the new champion before the fifth and penultimate race at the Aragón circuit after Guerreri was the victim of a rear-end collision.
Double victory for the Muller family
The proud uncle also scored 16 times, winning only the penultimate race in Aragón and ensuring a double victory for the family from Mulhouse in Alsace as runner-up in the 2020 WTCR. Yann Ehrlacher is by far the youngest touring car champion. Previously, Andy Priaulx in 2005 and José María López in 2015 in the FIA WTCC were both 31 years old.
Victories for Alfa Romeo and the new Cupra
With his first victory in the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR by Romeo Ferraris at the first of the six races in Aragón and two further podium finishes on the second weekend in Spain, Jean-Karl Vernay overtook Guerreri to take third place overall. The Frenchman also won the TCR Trophy for non-factory drivers.
After the newly developed Cupra Leon Competición was initially a little too slow, works driver Mikel Azcona gave the Spanish brand the home victory it had been longing for in the second race at Aragon.
Winning is not everything
The Belgian Audi customer sports team Comtoyou Racing produced two race winners in Slovakia with Nathanaël Berthon (F) and the indestructible warhorse Tom Coronel (NL) - who has already competed in more than 500 touring car races.
Even without a win, but with points in all races, the third Audi driver Gilles Magnus from Belgium, who is also predicted by many to have a great future, was the best in the championship in fifth place overall.
Unsuccessful title defenders
While each of the four drivers from the two Cyan Racing and Performance Teams of Lynk & Co. won at least one race, the 2019 victorious team BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse experienced a short season to forget.
Defending champion Norbert Michelisz did not make a single podium, while his predecessor and team-mate Gabriele Tarquini finished second in Slovakia and third in Spain. However, no Hyundai was not on the grid at the Nürburgring.
Swiss team in the top 12
A Swiss driver was able to claim some very personal respectable successes. The Renault Mégane RS TCR Evo, built by Milenko Vukovic's motorsport company in St. Margrethen and entered by his crew, was good for its first points at the highest TCR level. Aurélien Comte, who only joined the team at the third event in Slovakia, was responsible for this.
The Frenchman won a WTCR race in France in 2018 in a Peugeot 308TCR and was involved in the development of the Swiss car last winter. When young talent Jack Young from Northern Ireland ran out of money after two events, Comte stepped in.
Vukovic's move paid off, with the fast man finishing twelfth in Slovakia and Aragon, as well as three further points finishes. With a little more racing luck, the first top ten result in the FIA WTCR - which Vukovic Motorsport had not planned at the start of the year, but was allowed to contest in the exceptional year without prior registration - would have been perfectly feasible.
Final standings FIA WTCR drivers 2020
Final standings FIA WTCR Trophy 2020
Final standings FIA WTCR 2020 teams
