Jean-Karl Vernay frustrated with Comtoyou’s tactics at Spa

Jean-Karl Vernay was able to extend his championship lead to 15 points after a fourth-place finish at Spa-Francorchamps, but the French driver was disappointed after he said he was being deliberately blocked by Comtoyou Racing’s Frédéric Vervisch during the early stages of the race.

Vervisch fell from second to fourth at the start in his Audi RS 3 LMS, running just ahead of the two Volkswagen Golf GTIs of Vernay and team-mate Rob Huff.

The Belgian, who is making his TCR International Series debut this weekend was then able to keep back Vernay’s Volkswagen for five laps, before he was able to make his move through Pouhon.

“My start was good, I was just in the wrong place and couldn’t make much advantage of it,” said Vernay to TouringCarTimes. “But then I was right behind (Frédéric) Vervisch, who was really playing for his team. He was really off the pace and blocking me quite rudely quite a few times.

“In the end, I passed him and then caught (Attila) Tassi really quickly, as our car was fantastic in the second sector. With Rob (Huff), we did a really good job at setting up the car. We had a new way of working through his experience.”

“With Tassi, he was maybe about two seconds slower and keeps making mistakes, but as soon as he’s back on throttle there’s nothing we can do about it. I don’t think we could have done much better today. We’ll try to do a little bit better tomorrow, as we have the two Audis behind us (on the grid)”.