» WTCC: Maiden win for rookie Ehrlacher

The story of rising star of rookie driver Yann Ehrlacher featured another highlight after the French youngster claimed his first World Touring Car Championship victory in the Opening Race at the Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo.

The LADA driver controversially inherited the race win after on-track winner Tom Chilton was handed a time penalty for his forceful opening-lap passing move on the youngster.

The pair had started from the reversed-grid front row for the 11-lap race and while Chilton initially made the better getaway off the line, his path to the lead was blocked by Ehrlacher who squeezed across to block the inside line to Turn 1.

Yann Ehrlacher, RC Motorsport Lada Vesta - 2017 FIA WTCC Race of Argentina

Ehrlacher aggressively defended from Chilton, but the latter would controversially get a penalty that deprived him of victory. (FIA WTCC Media)

Chilton launched a counter-attack at the end of the back straight, darting first to the outside of the Turn 5 hairpin before cutting back and hitting Ehrlacher in the rear. The contact unsettled the LADA and created enough of a gap for Chilton to nip through and claim the lead.

That opened the door for Chilton’s Sébastien Loeb Racing teammate Mehdi Bennani to also have a go, but Ehrlacher gamely held on and fended off the Moroccan driver as they ran side-by-side through Turn 7.

It proved to be a frenetic opening lap through the field where a number of key championship contenders came unstuck.

Having clawed back major ground in the Drivers’ Championship last time out in Portugal, Norbert Michelisz copped a puncture after contact from his Honda teammate Tiago Monteiro. The Hungarian managed to limp back to the pits for a new set of tyres, but his race was as good as done and he finished a lap adrift in fourteenth.

It was also a disastrous race for Polestar Cyan Racing, which had two of its three cars eliminated. Local driver Néstor Girolami retired early on with an apparent transmission failure, while former championship leader Nicky Catsburg retired with a left front puncture while running in fifth place.

The Chilton-Ehrlacher contact was initially noted by the FIA Stewards, who then took an eternity to rule on the matter. Eventually it was announced with three laps to go that Chilton would be slapped with a five-second time penalty added to his final race time, much to the Briton’s fury.

Ehrlacher had gamely hung on to be just three seconds adrift, leaving Chilton unable to open enough of a gap to negate the penalty which would drop him to fourth place in the final reckoning.

A delighted Ehrlacher claimed his breakthrough victory ahead of Bennani, while local driver Esteban Guerrieri was thrilled to claim a podium in his Campos Racing Chevrolet.

Chilton was reclassified in fourth, narrowly ahead of championship leader Monteiro. The Portuguese driver’s nearest title challenger Thed Björk finished sixth in the sole remaining Volvo.

Like his teammates, Björk also had a scruffy race. The Swede threw away a shot at making up ground on Monteiro’s championship lead with a wild lunge on Guerrieri, who returned serve by shoving the Volvo wide which allowed Monteiro to nip through and claim the place.

Rob Huff recovered from a poor qualifying showing to finish seventh in his Münnich Motorsport Citroën ahead of John Filippi, while Tom Coronel and Ryo Michigami – who both started from the back of the grid – rounded out the points’ scoring positions.

2017 FIA WTCC Race of Argentina – Opening Race Final Classification (11 laps)
	Driver	Team	Result	Cat
1.	Yann Ehrlacher	RC Motorsport LADA Vesta WTCC	19:23.991	IND
2.	Mehdi Bennani	Sébastien Loeb Racing Citroën C-Elysée	+ 0.726	IND
3.	Esteban Guerrieri	Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze	+ 1.326	IND
4.	Tom Chilton*	Sébastien Loeb Racing Citroën C-Elysée	+ 1.573	IND
5.	Tiago Monteiro	Castrol Honda WTCC Team Civic WTCC	+ 1.677	MF
6.	Thed Björk	Polestar Cyan Racing Volvo S60 TC1	+ 2.322	MF
7.	Rob Huff	Münnich Motorsport Citroën C-Elysée	+ 3.668	IND
8.	John Filippi	Sébastien Loeb Racing Citroën C-Elysée	+ 10.369	IND
9.	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze	+ 10.960	IND
10.	Ryo Michigami	Honda Racing Team JAS Civic WTCC	+ 11.379	MF
11.	Kevin Gleason	RC Motorsport LADA Vesta WTCC	+ 14.036	IND
12.	Dániel Nagy	Zengõ Motorsport Honda Civic WTCC	+ 21.452	IND
13.	Zsolt David Szabó	Zengõ Motorsport Honda Civic WTCC	+ 22.972	IND
14.	Norbert Michelisz	Castrol Honda WTCC Team Civic WTCC	+ 1 lap	MF
	Not Classified	Team	Result	Cat
DNF.	Nick Catsburg	Polestar Cyan Racing Volvo S60 TC1	Puncture	MF
DNF.	Néstor Girolami	Polestar Cyan Racing Volvo S60 TC1	Gearbox	MF