Frédéric Vervisch hoping to fight for the victory in Race 1

Comtoyou Racing’s Frédéric Vervisch scored pole position at Monza in only his second event in the TCR International Series, the only driver under the 1:59 barrier, and hopes to convert his first pole to his first victory.

The Belgian was quick from the off, and felt very comfortable at the wheel of his Audi RS 3 LMS. “I was hoping to be able to fight for pole position, but is very difficult in free practice to know where you are, because you don’t know what tyres others are using,” said Vervisch to TouringCarTimes. “But when I saw the result in Q1 I thought that maybe pole was possible, so I was hoping to get everything together and see if it was enough. I’m very happy that we could do it.”

Most teams have been slipstreaming in order to improve their lap times, but not at Comtoyou Racing, where both Vervisch and Comini had their own plan. The Belgian said: “We discussed it, we tried it yesterday but it didn’t work so well. Also, you have to always sacrifice a lap, and the tyres take some time to come, so if you get your lap but your tyres aren’t at the right temperature. So it’s not so beneficial, that’s why we decided to not do it. We could have the slipstream from someone, but we decided to not do it as a team.”

Vervisch isn’t shy about his aspirations for Race 1, with victory a clear target for the Audi driver: “I really hope I have the pace to be there and try to win the race, because in Spa I didn’t have the pace in qualifying and was very disappointed. I hope I can take the 25 points and help Stefano. I’m here to help the team, not to fight for the championship, but it doesn’t mean I can’t have a good couple of races and maybe be top five in the championship.”