Jean-Karl Vernay takes championship lead despite missing out on double podium

Jean-Karl Vernay’s second race in Bahrain left him slightly disappointed, as the Team WRT driver would have liked to step on the podium again after finishing third in Race 1. The Volkswagen driver is still happy after having bagged 27 points this weekend, on a track that does not suit the Golf GTI TCR.

“It has been a great race today and it was good for the championship as we took some valuable points”, said the Frenchman. “Once again the start was a bit difficult for me, we will have to work on it as we need to have a better feeling with the clutch and the throttle. We must improve as we don’t want to lose too much ground at the beginning of the race.”

After the first two laps, which were positive for him, Vernay lost a place to Craft-Bamboo’s James Nash, after which he could not take the position back: “The first two laps were really good and I was able to take third, but then I couldn’t manage to follow the SEATs as they were a little bit quicker on the straight. There was no chance to overtake them and that was it. We were hoping for another podium, unfortunately we couldn’t get it but fourth is great for the championship.”

The WRT driver expects even better results in the coming races, as the tracks are more suitable to his Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR: “Our target was to score points as the Bahrain Circuit isn’t very good for our car, but we bagged 27 points here and that’s really good for the championship. The whole team was just exceptional again, we just need to continue this way, scoring points, and I am sure the win will also arrive. Now we are going to race on circuits which are better for our car, so let’s keep pushing.”