The French driver finished on top for the second consecutive FIA World Touring Car Cup season, and the Cyan Racing Lynk & Co team won the team title for the third time.
The first race of the final round of the FIA World Touring Car Cup 2021 ended with the triumph of Frenchman Yann Ehrlacher - the 25-year-old driver in a Lynk & Co 03 TCR car finished sixth and became a two-time series champion early. The gap to the second place in the drivers’ standings was 39 points. Cyan Racing Lynk & Co. finished on top of the team standings of the racing series that transitioned to this format in 2018 for the third time.
Mikel Azcona was the best in the wet race, he was among the leaders in the final part of the race thanks to aggressive attacks. And on the last lap, the driver in a Cupra León Competición TCR (Zengő Motorsport Services KFT team) overtook Frenchman Jean-Karl Vernay and took his first victory of the season. The Spaniard completed 11 laps of Sochi Autodrom in 31 minutes 18.657 seconds. Azcona finished the 2021 World Cup eleventh having won one of the races.
Vernay driving a Hyundai Elantra N TCR (Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing team) was second in the final classification. His gap to Azcona was 1.403 seconds. Frédéric Vervisch from Comtoyou Team Audi Sport finished third. The Belgian’s Audi RS 3 LMS was 2.432 seconds behind the winner.
Ehrlacher, in his turn, ran the race without taking any risk, maintaining the position he needed to win the title. His uncle, legendary Yvan Muller, driving for the same team as his nephew protected him from the cars that were pursuing him. The drivers of the Russian LADA Sport ROSNEFT team, a wild card at the final round of the FIA WTCR VTB Race of Russia 2021, were very familiar with the track, Kirill Ladygin and Mikhail Mityaev took 18th and 19th places respectively.
The race was not without accidents either. Already on lap 1 at the exit of turn 3, Argentine driver Esteban Guerrieri fighting Vervisch ran off the track, lost control on the wet surface and flew into the guardrail, crashing the car.
The final race of the WTCR VTB Race of Russia 2021 and the entire season will take place at 14:15 Moscow time on 28 November.