Jean-Karl Vernay on target for title after strong qualifying in Dubai

Championship leader Jean-Karl Vernay just needs to finish ahead of his title rivals in the first race at the Dubai Autodrome tomorrow in order to secure the 2017 TCR International Series title, and put himself in a strong position after qualifying second in his Team WRT Volkswagen Golf, one spot behind new team-mate Gordon Shedden.

Vernay’s lead over M1RA Honda driver Attila Tassi is now 25 points, so just finishing ahead of the 18-year-old Hungarian, who starts tenth, will be enough to allow him to become the champion of the third, and possibly final season, of the TCR International Series.

Despite this, the Frenchman didn’t want to count on his laurels just yet.

“I could get a puncture or a mechanical issue but at least we’re in front,” he told TouringCarTimes. “At least we’re doing the job we want to do. I don’t know what happened to the Hondas, but we don’t have to worry about them, we can just stay focussed to do as we’ve done today and that’s all.”

Vernay also had praise for his new team-mate Gordon Shedden, who rocketed to pole position straight off after the Scotsman made a strategic call to change a problematic set of brakes within Q1.

“He’s a three-time BTCC champion, he has six times more experience than me in touring cars, so of course he was going to be fast. That’s why with the help of Rob (Huff) we had the chance to have him, and I’m really happy to have him has my team-mate,” said Vernay.

“Of course, I’d have liked to have had pole position for the last two races of the season, but we both had the same problem with the brakes; he decided to stop to change the pads, and I decided to get used to it as I wanted to be certain to get to Q2.”