Jean-Karl Vernay’s target is to keep third in the championship

Jean-Karl Vernay hopes to follow up his Macau victory with third in the World Touring Car Cup drivers’ standings, after leaping past Pepe Oriola and Thed Björk in the points after today’s race.

The 2017 TCR International Series’ champion slipstreamed his way past Rob Huff’s Volkswagen at the start of the race to jump from fourth to second, before pouncing on Yvan Muller’s YMR Hyundai at the restart on lap three to take the lead, which he never gave back.

“In seven races here, that’s six podiums, which is a great record, so I’d like to keep it like this tomorrow,” said Vernay to TouringCarTimes.

“Tomorrow, we’re going to have to be careful in Race 2 and score some more points, and also make sure the car is in one piece for Race 3. We have good top speed, we’re little bit slower than Rob and Yvan over the rest, but the mechanics did a very good job preparing the car for this race.

“If we can finish P3 in the championship, it’ll be a good first season. It could have been better, but obviously Hyundai couldn’t have lost this title.”

On achieving the Macau victory, WRT’s second in a touring car category at the event, Vernay added:

“This result is great, it’s great for me, and great for the team, they’re like a family, I’ve been with them for four years, so to thank them I really wanted to win.”