Frédéric Vervisch dedicates Macau win to late backer

Frédéric Vervisch has dedicated his victory in the TCR World Tour finale to a deceased long-time backer and friend, after the Belgian driver scored his first win of the season in Macau on Sunday.

Vervisch won the second and final race of the weekend at the Guia street track, taking victory on a bittersweet day for the Belgian Comtoyou Audi squad that also features Rob Huff who lost out in the title fight.

Following his win, Vervisch dedicated the success to his deceased friend, fellow Belgian Filip Remmerie.

“I want to dedicate this win to my friend, Filip Remmerie,” said Vervisch. “He supported me and sponsored me in karting a long time ago. He came here to Macau every year and recently died at quite a young age. A very passionate guy and I always think about him, especially here.”

The success marks Vervisch’s second Macau Guia Race win, having also taken the victory in 2018.

Vervisch had worked his way into the lead of the race with a move on Santiago Urrutia on lap eight, and duly made sure third-placed Huff was closing in on the top pair to potentially help propel the Briton into an eventual lead.

That strategy ultimately came to nothing as Huff and Urrutia made contact in what Huff later slammed as “the dirtiest thing I’ve seen”, again unleashing Vervisch’s full pace en route to victory.

“My personal aim was to help Rob as much as possible,” Vervisch said. “There was hope today, we had a chance, and I think we did everything we could. My job was to try to get into the lead and control the race. We succeeded in that, but then Rob dropped out in that contact. We tried today. We really tried.”