Jean-Karl Vernay on P13: “It’s terrible for the championship”

Championship leader Jean-Karl Vernay qualified in 13th position at the Salzburgring after he was knocked out of the top 12 by a late improvement by the rival Volkswagen Golf of Gianni Morbidelli, with the Frenchman unhappy with the drivers who managed to improve their times under yellow flags.

Vernay missed out on the top 12 cut-off for Qualifying 2 after not improving in the final moments of Qualifying 1, with yellow flags deployed for the SEAT of Stian Paulsen, who was trapped in the gravel.

Three cars improved ahead of Vernay during those minutes, including his Team WRT team-mate Rob Huff, WestCoast Racing’s Gianni Morbidelli and GE-Force’s Davit Kajaia, though Kajaia was the only driver to have his lap deleted after he improved his time in the second sector, whereas Huff and Morbidelli didn’t.

“The car was being very weird, but we could be in the top ten quite easily,” said Vernay to TouringCarTimes.

“There was a yellow flag, so I thought it’d be too risky to improve. My dashboard wasn’t working at all so I couldn’t really see if I was improving or not in sector two.

“I decided to be nice and to lift as it was yellow, but some other guys didn’t care and just improved their lap times. OK, they didn’t improve their second sector, but if you want to improve your lap time you need a good second sector.”

Vernay will line up 11th for Race 1 after M1RA drivers Attila Tassi and Roberto Colciago’s grid penalties, but with the Golf struggling at the Austrian circuit, he has low expectations for race day.

“It’s terrible for the championship. We know it’s going to be tough as we see on the straights we’re nowhere here.