James Nash and Jean-Karl Vernay blame Roberto Colciago for starting smash in Germany

Craft-Bamboo Racing’s James Nash and Team WRT’s Jean-Karl Vernay have laid the blame at Roberto Colciago’s door for the incident at the start of the second race at Oschersleben, which saw seven cars immediately eliminated for the race.

Roberto Colciago started from third on the grid in the M1RA Honda Civic, and made the typical Honda start and was blasting past Vernay’s Volkswagen on the way into Turn 1, while the SEAT of James Nash also had a great start from fifth, and first tried to go through the middle of Vernay and Colciago, but saw the Italian was cutting across and switched to the inside of Vernay down the straight.

Colciago appeared to continue to move across on Vernay, which caused the Frenchman to make contact with Nash’s León TCR, with him spinning across into Colciago, who in turn was collected by Giacomo Altoè’s Volkswagen, with a further four cars wiped out in the incident.

Vernay was able to take the restart and went on to finish second, but Colciago, Nash, Altoè, as well as the SEATs of Stian Paulsen and Pepe Oriola, and the Volkswagens of Rob Huff and Luca Engstler were taken out of the race in the ensuing melee.

“My start was not bad, but the other guys had a better start,” said new championship leader Vernay to TouringCarTimes. “I stayed on my line, and I saw Roberto on my right and James on my other side and I was just in a sandwich. I couldn’t do anything.

“Roberto didn’t have to do that. His start was so good if he stayed on his line it would have been fine.”

Colciago was unaware of his part in the collision when he returned to the paddock after a brief check-up at the medical centre.

“I don’t know what happened, someone touched me on the rear and that made me spin on the straight and the others crashed into me,” explained Colciago.

James Nash was highly critical of Colciago, with the British driver concerned about the team’s workload, having to repair both his and team-mate Pepe Oriola’s cars before they’re freighted to Thailand in three days’ time.

“I had another good start,” said Nash to TouringCarTimes. “I had Vernay next to me, and then Colciago, and Colciago just kept closing the door. I don’t where he thought everyone was going to disappear to, he just kept coming across and that’s what caused the accident.

“I got quite far alongside Vernay and thought I was clear of him, then there was just a big hit,” he added. “I think (Colciago) had a clear view with a big red car there in front of Vernay, he just chose not to care. It’s created a load of work for the team, as we have to order the parts to ship and rebuild them all when we’re in Thailand.”