Jean-Karl Vernay calls Borkovic’s Race 1 move “completely crazy”

Salzburgring Race 2 winner Jean-Karl Vernay has called the driving behaviour of Dusan Borkovic “completely crazy”, after the Serbian pulled off a two-car pass on the Volkswagen driver as well as the WestCoast Honda of Mikhail Grachev at Turn 1 in the first race.

Borkovic managed to pass the two cars at the start of lap five into the first chicane, narrowly avoiding contact and collecting the tyre bundle in the process as Grachev, who would go on to win the race, managed to take avoiding action.

“I just wanted to overtake Vernay, but Grachev was so close,” said Borkovic to TouringCarTimes. “Then I locked up the rears and then it was a like a handbrake turn, but I was just trying to overtake Vernay as I knew I could be faster on the brakes than him,” he explained.

Vernay however was not impressed with the B3 Racing driver’s aggression, following on from Imola where the two drivers also had a coming together.

“I’ve tried to change my behaviour on track on my side,” said Vernay to TouringCarTimes. “I knew that it was mistake when I hit James (Nash) in Spa and apologised to him, but concerning Borkovic I think he’s a bit aggressive.

“When you see my onboard which I put on social networks (from Imola) it showed that I’m not moving him or pushing him, but I took the penalty for that, but when you look at his move in the chicane (today) it was completely crazy, and when I saw a car was in the gravel on the last laps and I saw his name on the door, I wasn’t surprised.”

Borkovic was involved in two other incidents in race, making contact with Craft-Bamboo’s Sergey Afanasyev on lap two, with the Russian driver developing a puncture and retiring, while an identical incident on the final lap against the other Craft-Bamboo SEAT of James Nash saw Borkovic develop the puncture and end his race in the gravel whilst he was running in second place.

“With Sergey we touched before the corner, but not in the corner,” said Borkovic. “So it was the same as when I touched (with Nash), but he didn’t crash as hard and I didn’t get another race.”

Afanasyev, who would bounce back from the back of the grid in Race 2 to finish in second position in the wet race was philosophical about the incident.

“It was kind of a racing accident,” he said. “We touched, and then nothing happened for him. I believe he touched a red car twice, the first time he sent a red car into the wall, and the second time it was the red car that sent him. Let’s call him a bull, as he likes the red ones.”

James Nash, who was able to finish in second place in Race 1 following Borkovic’s puncture said from his perspective it was also just a racing incident.

“He was around the outside of me and I drew alongside him through the tow,” said Nash. “I couldn’t see him through my window, and it tightens up and it was the smallest of touches on my right-rear quarter, and thankfully I managed to slow it down a couple of gears and get underneath him before he went off into the gravel.”

The full race replay of TCR Salzburg Race 1 is below, with the start time set to show the pass of Borkovic on Vernay and Grachev on lap five.