Comtoyou Racing: “We’re right in the game”

The Comtoyou Racing team principal has declared the team are now right in the championship battle, after the team’s lead driver Frédéric Vervisch launched himself into title contention over the two China events over the last week.

Two podium finishes and front-running pace for Vervisch has seen the Belgian amass 90 points over the two races, almost doubling his season tally.

Vervisch has now leapt to eighth in the drivers’ standings, ahead of early championship favourites Yann Ehrlacher and Rob Huff, and is now just 49 points behind championship leader Gabriele Tarquini, with 174 still available this season.

“We’re now right in the game,” said team principal Jean-Michel Beart to TouringCarTimes. “Fred has scored more points than anyone over two races. We’ve worked all summer on the car, and the results are really paying off now. We might struggle a bit with the weight they’re likely to give us in Japan, but we won’t give up,” he added.

Vervisch’s best result at Wuhan was second in the final race, chasing down race winner Gordon Shedden’s rival Audi across the line as WRT turned around their performance over the week to match Comtoyou’s, which were by far and away the leading Audi team a week ago at Ningbo.

“We had all cars in the points and on podiums more or less, which is great,” said Vervisch. “In Race 3 I think I had a bit more pace than Gordon (Shedden) – not a lot – but to find a clean overtaking (point) was quite difficult and I didn’t want to cause any unnecessary contact. I think I have to be happy with second. I was quite constant all weekend and hopefully I can have some more like that.”