Jean-Karl Vernay was left feeling frustrated after ‘lacking pace’ in the second TCR Europe race at Assen, leaving the Audi driver to make up just two places from his grid position.
Vernay ran in eighth for much of the race, only initially making up a position when the Peugeot of Julien Briché dropped back through the field on the opening lap.
The Frenchman then gained one more place on the last lap when Comtoyou Racing’s Maxime Potty went wide, but Vernay had no answer to the pace of the cars in front and followed the pack around for much of the race.
“We were really slow, and we didn’t have any pace,” Vernay told TouringCars.Net. “It was like yesterday, but yesterday we were up front, so we managed to stay up front.
“Today was even worse – we just had no grip at all with the tyres and couldn’t do much. As soon as we were not fighting they were just pulling away.
“I tried to stay in touch if something happened in the last few laps so that we could gain a position at the end, but we had no pace at all, so it was frustrating.
“In the end we are where we are, and we have what we deserved.”
Despite his frustrating weekend – which also saw the Audi Sport driver miss out on a win on Saturday when he had to settle for second – Vernay believes that a big points haul is possible at the next round at Monza, which is expected to suit the RS3 LMS.
“At Monza we should be really quick, but we’ll have to see what is going on with the car.
“It’s going to be tough – [Mikel] Azcona scored big points again with the reversed grid and I only took from them six points, so it’s going to be tough.
“We have to try and win both races at Monza and from that if there is around 15 points [to catch up] before the final then there is still a possibility.
“But they are pretty solid and they are doing a good job, consistently scoring points in every race, which is not what we need.
“We are working hard with Audi to improve the car for WTCR, where I am still in contention for the title.
“We definitely have to work and there is some stuff planned.”