Stefano Comini on Leopard Volkswagen win in Spa: “We needed this”

Reigning champion Stefano Comini was delighted with team-mate Jean-Karl Vernay’s victory in Race 2 at Spa-Francorchamps, hailing the progress of Leopard Racing and their Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR, playing his part also by leading the race and completing a 1-2 for the new team.

Comini followed team-mate Vernay throughout much of the race, briefly sneaking ahead into the lead on lap four at Les Combes before Vernay retook the position, but with 20kg of success ballast on Comini’s Golf after a good weekend in Portugal two weeks’ ago, the Swiss driver said he decided to be cautious with his tyres in the heat in Belgium.

“We wanted to get some space from the others, and we did a great job,” said Comini to TouringCarTimes. “We had 20kg of success ballast which influenced the end of the race as I didn’t want to push too hard as I’d kill the tyres if I tried to fight Jean-Karl (Vernay), and we didn’t want to run out of tyres like (WestCoast Honda driver Aku) Pellinen did (in Race 1).”

The team had a tough Race 1, with Vernay given a penalty after contact with Craft-Bamboo Lukoil driver James Nash, and Comini not even starting the race due to a driveshaft failure as he left the pit lane.

“It’s a great result for Leopard Racing, as on Friday we both scored 0 points so we needed something like this,” he said. “It’s good for the championship, we’ve got more and more close to the front and hopefully next time I’ll win.”

The Swiss driver is looking ahead to his ‘home’ race on the calendar in Imola in a fortnight, and he’ll be success ballast free, although the protestations of the SEAT teams may see the Volkswagens handed back weight in Balance of Performance.

“I’m looking forward to not having any weight in Imola, as Italy is a little bit like my country,” said Comini. “My wife is from Italy, I’ve driven a lot for Italian teams, I’ve lived a lot there as well and I want to go there to win.”