Comtoyou Racing’s Frédéric Vervisch accused Yvan Muller of brake testing him in the second FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) race on the Nürburgring Nordschleife, where the Audi driver eventually finished in third.
Vervisch made the most of a chaotic start to move up to fifth by the halfway point of the opening lap, whilst ahead of him René Rast and Rob Huff collided to take each other out.
The Comtoyou Racing driver then passed Münnich Motorsport’s Yann Ehrlacher for fourth at the end of Döttinger Höhe on the opening lap, putting him on the tail of Muller.
Vervisch snatched the final podium position from Muller on the final lap of the race heading down Döttinger Höhe, after he says the Frenchman brake tested him at the Klein-Karussell corner.
That allowed the Belgian to secure his first-ever WTCR podium, which he then followed up with second in the final race of the weekend.
“The start was really good,” said Vervisch of race two, where he started from ninth on the grid. “I managed to overtake some cars on the outside of the first corner. Then corner three there was a big mess. I was hit a little bit on the back but nothing big.
“Then it was just a case of seeing what the pace was and managing the tyres because on Thursday I didn’t finish the race and I didn’t know how that would be [in this race]. Our car obviously works really well here so I’m really happy.
“At the end Muller brake-tested me to keep me behind but he almost punished himself because the other cars came as well. I’m happy his plan didn’t work.”
Vervisch secured his first WTCR points of the year in Germany’s races, and he dedicated the results to the work of his team, who had also not scored any points until the event, despite running four Audi RS3 cars.
“I’m really happy with the podium. I could only dream about it, but this podium is for Audi and Comtoyou Racing. They’ve had some bad luck but they’ve worked so hard and they really deserve this result.”