Punctures the cause for Team WRT’s crashes at “completely unsafe” Salzburgring

Rob Huff and Jean-Karl Vernay’s two Team WRT Volkswagens both crashed out in the first TCR International Series race at Salzburgring due to punctures, with the Frenchman blasting the safety level of the Austrian circuit.

“The tyre just popped and then I braked and braked until I hit the wall. This track is completely unsafe, there’s not enough run-off before the barrier,” said Vernay to TouringCarTimes.

Vernay was winded after the accident that happened at Turn 9, but escaped unharmed while his car requires a lot of repairs ahead of the next race at Hungaroring in just one week.

“I couldn’t really breathe at the beginning, it’s getting better, but it’s really painful. We were really safe with the camber and the set-up of the car. It’s frustrating,” said Vernay.

“I don’t care about the points, I really don’t care right now. I hope we can just put two cars on the track next week, and that I can be able to drive it, as I’m not feeling well at all.”

Team-mate Rob Huff crashed at the same corner earlier in the race, hailing the safety level of the Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR race cars.

“We knew the front lefts were going to be a problem, so we did everything we could to be safe. The same as JK I’m sure, I was careful on the warm up lap and the first few laps, I was trying to keep the car for Race 2 as I had a good starting position, but it didn’t seem to work. It’s a testament to the car as it’s held up to that very well.”