A difficult start for Vernay

FIA ETCR Round 1 - Race FR - Pau - Hyundai Motorsport N was able to see the progress made by the Hyundai Veloster N ETCR for this first outing of the season at the Circuit de Pau-Ville. Jean-Karl Vernay was the fastest in the qualifying session of his group - Pool Fast - and took the pole position for the first quarter final.

Unfortunately, an error in the set-up of the #69 Hyundai allowed him to benefit from extra power during the quarter-final, leading to the disqualification of the Lyon-based driver in this session.

In Semi-Final 2, Vernay fought hard but fair with teammate Norbert Michelisz, finishing in second place.

In his Super Final, “JKV” was not far off the mark. On this narrow circuit where overtaking is known to be very difficult, the Frenchman was able to climb from fifth to third place in just three laps! But having used most of his 150 kW of Power Up, he was unable to defend his position in the final moments of the race and crossed the finish line in fourth place. Frustrating!

For Jean-Karl Vernay, the final result was not up to his expectations, as he himself confided: “It was a difficult start to the season for me. Qualifying was the best session of the weekend on the Pau circuit. I hadn’t driven here for 10 years and it took me some time to feel confident with the car. It all came down to my second attempt. Then there was an unfortunate misunderstanding with the settings for the quarter-final; I started the race with more power than our competitors, which caused our disqualification. It was disappointing after all the work we did in the morning. In the Super Final, it was hot! I gained a few places, thanks to a good start. I tried to overtake several times without too much success and with contact fights like with Filippi. I was able to pass Martin but I lacked power and I couldn’t defend. It’s difficult to come back from fifth when you start from the back of the grid.”

Next up in Turkey for Round 2, May 20-22.

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2022 FIA ETCR Driver Rankings

1 – Mattias Ekström 100
2 – Adrien Tambay 92
3 – Tom Blomqvist 79
….
7 – Jean-Karl Vernay 45