Yann Ehrlacher has taken the lead of the 2018 World Touring Car Cup driver standings after a strong weekend at Zandvoort, scoring the most points over the race weekend, while all four drivers at the top of the standings failed to score.

The weekend was a disaster for the BRC Racing Team drivers Norbert Michelisz and Gabriele Tarquini, and YMR’s Thed Björk and former championship leader Yvan Muller, with the latest Balance of Performance measures combined with the 60kg of compensation weight hampering the Hyundais progress during the weekend, with not one driver finishing in the points.

This worked out well for the Honda, Audi, Volkswagen and Peugeot drivers who were able to capitalise, with Aurélien Comte scoring Peugeot’s first victory in Race 2, while SLR Volkswagen driver Rob Huff and Team WRT’s Jean-Karl Vernay threw themselves firmly back in play, moving up to third and fourth in the standings respectively.

Ehrlacher’s 55 points over the weekend however saw him go from fifth to first in the standings, now leading his uncle Yvan Muller by nine points heading to the next round of the championship in June.

“It is a very good feeling to lead the championship, but it’s still a very, very long way to go,” said Ehrlacher to TouringCarTimes.

“At least I’m P1 and not P10, and I am the leader of a World Cup, so it is a very good feeling. But I don’t want to focus on points, I just want keep taking the most of every weekend and we will see.”