Jean-Karl Vernay reveals he raced with a broken rib in Hungary

Team WRT’s Jean-Karl Vernay bounced back from a high-speed crash in Austria to stay in the championship fight with a podium finish at the Hungaroring, with the Frenchman revealing after the weekend that he’d broken a rib in the crash a week earlier.

Vernay was in pain throughout the race meeting, but was the most competitive of the four Volkswagen Golfs, qualifying in second for the first race, eventually finishing third behind the M1RA Hondas of Attila Tassi and Norbert Michelisz.

The 29-year-old was again battling with Michelisz in Race 2, this time for sixth position, with Vernay having to settle for seventh, scoring key points in the championship.

Vernay is now third, 13 points behind new leader Attila Tassi, and now after the weekend was over, Vernay confirmed on social media the extent of his injuries from Austria which he’d kept quiet from his competitors this weekend – revealing he’d broken a rib in the crash at the Salzburgring.

“It’s always a pleasure to fight with guys like this,” said Vernay about his fight with Michelisz.

“We know that we won’t have any problems and the fastest guy will win.

“The car was great, I just had no chance to try something on Norbert. I’m pretty happy about the results and scoring points. Congratulations to Attila, he’s (made) a huge improvement compared to last year and he really deserved the victory.

“I’m really happy with the results. I don’t think we were able to hope for something better.”