Photo: TCR Europe

Turn five slide leads to “missed opportunity” for Jean-Karl Vernay

Jean-Karl Vernay was left ruing a “missed opportunity” after a mistake cost him a possible victory in the first TCR Europe race at Assen.

The Team WRT Audi RS 3 LMS driver started from pole position and led the opening laps from M1RA’s Dániel Nagy, before sliding wide on gravel kicked up by the KCMG Honda of Josh Files on lap five.

Vernay lost traction down the back-straight which allowed Nagy to pull alongside the Frenchman under braking for the Ruskenhoek chicane. The pair ran side-by-side but Vernay was forced to short-cut the corner and cede the lead to Nagy.

Without this mistake, Vernay believes the win for there for the taking.

“Clearly it was a missed opportunity, but it’s part of the race and you cannot manage it,” Vernay told TouringCarTimes.

“When I arrived into turn five there was gravel everywhere. I was just sliding into the gravel, went very wide and nearly spun.

“By the time I got it back, Nagy was past and I didn’t have the pace to get back past him. The pace was not great but we should have won this race if it wasn’t for bad luck.

“It’s seven extra points we should have put in our pocket. It’s disappointing but I’m still convinced we can do something in the championship.

Vernay suffered a significant tyre drop off in the second portion of the race which he feels contributed to him running deep at the Geert Timmerbocht chicane with two laps remaining while chasing Nagy for the lead.

This allowed Nagy to breathe easy on the final lap to claim his maiden TCR victory.

“He was making some mistakes and I was able to close the gap enough to take some slipstream and come back onto his gearbox.

“We were inconsistent but the big drop in the tyres hurt us.

“As a competitor, I’m really disappointed because we should have won without this mistake but it’s part of racing and they (M1RA) did a good job.”

As well as tyre trouble, Vernay struggled with his brakes and felt unable to push as hard in the closing stages. A bent chassis in practice after hitting a sausage kerb may also have played a part, according to the reigning TCR International Series champion.

“It’s a brand new chassis for this race, OK this one is f****d but it was brand new before. But we had some problems with the brake repartition between the front and the rear because as soon as I was off brakes, I was having a huge snap,” Vernay said.

“For me the target will be not to lose any more points to the guys up front but they have good pace and it’s good enough to stay there.”