Jean-Karl Vernay admits that he was not expecting to win on his début in the FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) with Audi, having taken victory in the reverse-grid second race of the weekend.
Having finished fourth in race one on Saturday, Vernay went on to qualify in second for Sunday’s opening reverse-grid encounter, and the Audi Sport driver got ahead of pole man Pepe Oriola at the start of the race to set himself up for a first WTCR win.
The reigning TCR International Series champion then went on to finish race three in ninth to leave Morocco third overall in the drivers’ standings, and one of only five drivers to finish all three races inside the top ten.
“I think it’s a great weekend,” said Vernay. “We were not expecting that kind of result before we came here. We scored a lot of points and I finished all the races with my beautiful Audi in one piece so this is also a good points for the mechanics.
“It was really important for me to start the championship well. It’s my first race with Audi and it’s also important for all the sponsors.
“It’s great to learn the car. I am still in a learning process but it’s great. The gap with the leader is not that big and we will try to give everything to be closer in the next round.”
Vernay admits that he wasn’t bothered by the contact from Oriola at the first corner of race two that could have been worse had the hit from the Spaniard been harder.
“I took a better start than him and I arrived in the first corner a little bit in front on the outside line. I touched Pepe a little bit, went wide but I was able to stay P1 and that was a good move.
“That’s why we are in touring car to have some battles like this.”