Jean-Karl Vernay elated to score Volkswagen’s first win of 2016
Jean-Karl Vernay led a Volkswagen 1-2-3 in the reversed grid second race of the day at Spa-Francorchamps, jumping ahead of Finland’s Antti Buri at the start and then fighting off team-mate Stefano Comini for his first win after a troubled Friday.
“It’s good, It was not easy,” said Vernay to TouringCarTimes after the race. “We had a good start and I think we were a lot quicker than the other guys.”
Vernay briefly lost the lead at Les Combes on lap four to Comini, before regaining the position a lap later at the same corner.
“Stefano overtook me as he was a bit quicker than me at the beginning, but then I overtook him and after that I just tried to put in qualifying runs. It’s perfect, I’m smiling more than yesterday after a nightmare day.”
Vernay was reflecting on qualifying where the Frenchman had three laps deleted, as well an incident in race two with Craft-Bamboo Racing’s James Nash, where the two came together, with the stewards handing Vernay a 30-second penalty which dropped him from fourth to 14th.
“Qualifying was good, but my lap time was cancelled for no reason, and then during the race with the contact with James I was surprised and angry that I got a penalty as some guys did the same in the last two events, where I lost three races because of other guys hitting me,” he explained.
“But TCR is really great, I really like the fighting. Some days drivers have been unlucky, like it was for me in Bahrain and yesterday, I think it’s a tough battle, we’re only three events in and there’s eight left to go.”
