Leopard Lukoil’s Jean-Karl Vernay was pleased to claim pole position for the opening TCR Europe race at Assen, after inheriting the position due to Josh Files’ grid penalty for race one.
Vernay made up for the difficulties he endured in Friday’s practice sessions, when he hit a since-removed kerb and broke his car’s suspension, also slightly bending part of the chassis on his Audi.
The Frenchman went fastest of all in Q1, before improving his time again in Q2 but just losing out to Files with the fastest overall time.
“My lap was really good – but compared to Files he did a better job,” said Vernay to TouringCars.Net. “It’s frustrating to lose a pole position by not so much, but it is what it is.”
Despite missing out on the quickest lap, Vernay still described it as a ‘perfect’ qualifying session, taking four points for the second-best lap in the process and seeing title rivals Mikel Azcona and Dušan Borković miss out on the top ten.
“After that [Files’ penalty] it was a perfect qualifying session; we scored four points and we start from pole with Azcona and Borković outside the top ten. It’s the best possible result overall. It couldn’t have been more perfect, and I will start from P9 and not P10 in race two.
“I’m really happy and I’m pleased with the job of my team after I bent the car on the kerb yesterday. We were not sure that we would be able to race this weekend and we are on the first row, so it’s great.
“The chassis is bent; you can feel it and the steering isn’t straight. I don’t want to think about it anymore – the team did everything they could with the tools we have. I want to thank them again for the job they did yesterday – the car doesn’t look that bad – and we’re happy now so I have to thank them by winning the race.”
With Vernay having a 50-point deficit to make up in the title battle he sees race one as presenting an ideal opportunity to make significant progress in closing the gap to Azcona and Borković.
“We need to focus on the race and do a good start, win the race, and it will be 29 points if we win the race [plus qualifying points], so that is the target.
“Obviously Borković and Azcona will not score so many points, so we have to use the qualifying to come back in the championship.”
The Audi Sport driver is also predicting that overtaking will be difficult around the fast Dutch circuit.
“I think this track suits every type of car. The first corner is really narrow and slow, so it should suit the Volkswagen, Hyundai or Honda. Then after that it’s a little bit faster, and the last sector is quite fast, so it should suit every car.
“I was not expecting such a big gap in qualifying, as the gap to P6 is one second which is quite huge. I think it will not be easy to overtake, so we need to make a good start, be consistent and we should be OK.”