Attila Tassi and Jean-Karl Vernay blast each other for Race 1 incidents

Championship contenders Jean-Karl Vernay and Attila Tassi have both laid blame for the two incidents in which they were involved in today’s first race at Oschersleben at each other. Both drivers failed to the finish the race, with Vernay unhappy with the stewards’ call to punish him mid-race.

Vernay started from ninth in his Team WRT Volkswagen, with the M1RA Honda of Attila Tassi 13th in the Civic TCR. They first came together at the first corner, with Tassi making a move down the inside of Vernay’s Volkswagen, making contact with Vernay spun around and falling to last place.

“I don’t understand Vernay’s behaviour, as I don’t believe he was behaving like a sportsman,” said Tassi to TouringCarTimes. “As clearly he moved to the inside after he’d moved to the outside. I had nowhere to go as I was now on the inside of the track. He closed the door and we both got sideways and I fell to the end of the pack.”

The Frenchman however called the first corner contact clearly Tassi’s error, with the 18-year-old coming from behind and hitting his Golf GTI into the corner.

“I understand he’s young, but he keeps making stupid mistakes like this,” said Vernay to TouringCarTimes. “He ruined my race and he ruined his race also with a stupid move. I was sure he was going to hit me by the way he acted at the first corner…I tried to keep the car straight to minimise the contact, but he pushed me too hard on the wheel and I spun.”

The follow-up incident occurred at the end of lap four, when Vernay caught back up to Tassi’s Honda, with the two colliding at the final turn, with Tassi’s car ending up stuck in the gravel trap and causing the safety car to be deployed.

“I was now working on the set-up for the second race, but then what happened, I don’t think I have to say, the video showed what he did,” said Tassi.

“A professional driver knows when the other one’s on the dirty line, he has to brake a bit earlier, and I was doing that as I was defending from him,” he added.

“There was the chance that we could have scored some points when everyone else wasn’t scoring, so I’m angry about him as it ruined my points scoring possibilities.”

Vernay was given a drive-through penalty for the incident, with the Team WRT driver opting to retire instead and focus on Race 2, where he starts from second on the grid.

“I was coming back and I tried to overtake him on the inside, and he closed the door,” said Vernay about the second incident. “I didn’t try to hit him, he just closed the door, and I got a drive-through. So he pushes me at the start, and he gets nothing, and then I’m the one that gets a drive-through. It’s disappointing as we could have scored some points.

“He will see the images and learn from his mistakes. However, I’m also disappointed by the stewards. I have to accept it, but they say his move was a racing incident, but if that’s the case, then so was mine.”