Photo: TCR Series

Jean-Karl Vernay still struggling with Austria rib injury in Thailand

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Team WRT’s Jean-Karl Vernay is happy with qualifying after putting his Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR fourth on the grid for the first race at Buriram, the top of championship front runners, but admits that even his rib injury sustained in Austria almost three months ago has begun to plague him again.

Championship rival Roberto Colciago has potentially ruled himself out of the frame after stepping down this weekend and has been replaced by Norbert Michelisz at M1RA, after suffering three broken ribs in the first lap crash in Race 2 in Germany, while Vernay, the only full-time driver at WRT, sustained a similar injury after hitting the barriers at Turn 9 in Austria one month earlier.

“In Q1, my rib was hurting a bit, and after Q2 it was even worse and I couldn’t get out of the car,” said Vernay to TouringCarTimes. “I’ve taken two months to recover, but I had three ribs broken, and as I was driving straight after (Austria) at the Hungaroring and Oschersleben, my recovery has been far from perfect. I thought it would be OK, but it’s started to be really painful again, and this is my main problem right now,” he added.

Vernay also believes an opportunity to qualify higher was lost after the red flags were waved when Davit Kajaia’s Alfa Romeo stopped at Turn 2 shortly into qualifying, and also with traffic on his next run.

“We could have done better without the red flag, as I was on a really good lap and after that I didn’t have any more new tyres, but it is what it is,” he said. “Then Stefano (Comini) blocked me, it’s OK, it’s part of the race, he was on a quick lap but then he slowed and went in the pits in front of me, so I couldn’t improve.

“I need to do a good start and score some good points, as Stefano is really smart and always is somewhere where he can score good points; but I think we have a pretty good car for the race and not so much tyre degradation, while the Audi has massive tyre degradation, but the Honda will only not win this championship if they make mistakes.”