Jean-Karl Vernay calls Balance of Performance “perfect” after close Thailand qualfiying

Jean-Karl Vernay will start third on the grid for Race 1 tomorrow behind the SEAT of Pepe Oriola and the Honda of Gianni Morbidelli, with the Frenchman admitting he was surprised by his pace but also that today’s result shows the TCR’s Balance of Performance measures are correct.

Vernay qualified just 0.133 seconds behind Oriola in a close qualifying session at the Buriram International Circuit, picking up three points in the drivers’ championship which closes him to 23 behind Oriola heading into tomorrow’s races.

“I was not expecting that,” said Vernay to TouringCarTimes.

“I thought we’d be a bit behind. Stefano (Comini) did a good Q1, while I was putting on two sets of tyres to get to Q2 so I thought we ‘d be about P5 or P6. I was struggling with the car earlier today, but maybe I was trying to push too much. In qualifying I calmed down and I was pretty surprised about the lap time and to be so close”, he said.

The Volkswagen runs with an often controversial different base weight to the SEAT León and Honda Civic of 1,285kg, 30kg less without success ballast, while Comini is carrying maximum ballast of 30kg this weekend due to scoring the most points in Russia, neutralising their handicap, and Vernay carries 10kg after taking the third-most points from the weekend.

“Everyone’s complaining about the BoP, but the BoP is perfect,” said Vernay. “You have a SEAT and Honda with the same lap time, and a Golf in third a tenth behind which is carrying 10kg of ballast, which is worth a tenth. I think it’s going to be interesting tomorrow. I’m definitely I’m aiming to score good points tomorrow in Race 1.

“We need to score good points and close up to the leader…and if there are no mistakes or technical issues, the championship starts in Macau, with my aim to be no more than 15 points behind by Macau.”