Photo: WTCR

Frédéric Vervisch says Morocco pole position shows Comtoyou Racing’s true pace

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Frédéric Vervisch rocketed to his first World Touring Car Cup pole position in Sunday morning’s qualifying session, and the Belgian said the performance reflected the true pace of the team and the Comtoyou Racing squad, after a disastrous qualifying session on Sunday.

Vervisch had qualified a lowly 24th for Saturday’s race, moving up to 13th before the finish, but then was handed a jump start penalty which sent him back to 17th and out of the points after the race.

On Sunday, Vervisch produced the best time seen so far this weekend in his Audi RS 3 LMS to top the time sheets in Q2, and converted that into his first pole position in Q3, four-tenths clear of four-time champion Yvan Muller’s new Lynk & Co machine.

“It was a perfect lap. I mean we all say perfect laps, but this was close to a perfect lap,” said Vervish.

“No locking of the brakes, just carrying good speed and good exits. I thought I could not repeat my (Q2 lap) in Q3, but I was close to. I’m happy we have this pace and hopefully we can score some good points from here.

“Yesterday, that was not our true pace. We had three runs, and two times I had a puncture in the first corner which was a problem a lot of people had, and then on my third try, Yvan (Muller’s) engine blew up and there was oil on the track, and that was it. The level is so high, you have to be perfect to be in it.”

Vervisch hopes the tricky nature of the Circuit Moulay El Hassan will play into the Macau winner’s favour for Race 3, but the 32-year-old is fully aware he first has to get through Race 2 with the top ten reversed grid.

“For sure, if you’re on pole, you have a clear chance for victory, but it’ll be really difficult – we know our car is always a bit more difficult in the races compared to our competitors, but it’s not so easy to overtake, but we also need to be there in the third race, as I have to start first from P10 (for Race 2), which is a big challenge, a bit dangerous, but hopefully we’ll be there for Race 3.”