Jean-Karl Vernay unlikely to help team-mate Stefano Comini’s title bid in Race 1 at Macau

Jean-Karl Vernay has said the championship is not over yet after qualifying on pole position for the Guia Race 2.0T in his Leopard Racing Volkswagen, with the Frenchman now just 34 points behind Craft-Bamboo SEAT driver James Nash in the standings.

The 29-year-old has also indicated that team-mate Stefano Comini, whose odds at winning his second drivers’ title in the TCR International Series are much stronger as he’s now just 13 points behind Nash heading into tomorrow’s race, may still need to fend for himself until Vernay’s chances are absolutely over.

“I can still win, and I want to win the championship,” said Vernay to TouringCarTimes. “If after Race 1 I can’t win and I have to let him past to win the championship, I might let him do it. But I’m a winner, and I want to win the championship, and as long as there’s a chance, it’s not done.”

Vernay was second fastest in the first part of qualifying before the rain fell, and the WRT-run team switched to their wet set-up which powered Vernay to a comfortable win at the Salzburgring. The change in performance meant they went from matching the Hondas and SEATs to over two second faster than both of them, with Vernay and Comini comfortably locking out the front row ahead of WestCoast Racing’s Tiago Monteiro.

“When we put the rain set-up on the car back in Salzburg it worked, and it worked here also,” said Vernay. “The Lukoil cars were really slow, but our car was great. We understood how to drive the car in the wet, and I was P1 on almost every lap except on the lap where I cooled down. (On my last lap) I saw that Stefano was being blocked my Pepe, so I took it easier and was just sure to be on pole. We’ve taken some points from Pepe (Oriola) and (James) Nash, and now we have to do a good start.”

Comini rued traffic on his final lap when he caught the Craft-Bamboo SEAT of Pepe Oriola, which he believed cost him pole position at the Circuito da Guia, but was optimistic for race day, though he still believes James Nash in seventh is in a strong position for the championship.

“Seventh for Nash is good for him in the provision of the races, as if he finishes fourth or fifth, he’ll still be in front, so he can easily win the championship, but at the same time, he could lose it,” said Comini to TouringCarTimes.

“(As for my qualifying), I’m happy to be in second, but I’m a little bit upset because I could easily have been P1, because before I caught Oriola, my dashboard showed I was a second-and-a half faster.”