Yvan Muller says Néstor Girolami “put himself in danger” in Race 2 contact

Quadruple world champion Yvan Muller came together with Néstor Girolami in the second WTCR race of the weekend at Adria.

The contact triggered a further accident between Girolami and Hyundai’s Jean-Karl Vernay, ending the race for Girolami while Vernay had to pit for repairs and dropped a lap on the leaders.

“I was on the inside of Néstor (Girolami), he was on the outside and insisted, and then there was contact”, explained the Frenchman to TouringCarTimes.

“When you are on the outside you should accept you lost in and give up, but he insisted. When you do that you have to accept that you put yourself in danger and it’s your problem at that point.”

Muller had a charging Tarquini in his mirrors towards the end of the second race as the Italian tried to make up for an unfortunate qualifying.

However, the Frenchman admits he didn’t recognise his long-time rival in the mirrors:

“Unfortunately I couldn’t appreciate Gabriele was in my mirrors because I thought he was Michelisz, I found out afterwards. But of course, ‘grande Gabriele’. It’s a shame he stopped, but at 58 his career is fantastic. I hope to see him soon in another capacity, maybe I’ll hire him as my engineer!”

As for his role in the last round of the championship in Sochi, Muller has no doubt, simply stating: “My position has been to help Yann for the last three years.”