» WTCR: Vernay survives jump-start investigation to win Race 3

Jean-Karl Vernay claimed his second win of the 2018 FIA World Touring Car Cup season. The WRT Audi driver survived a mid-race investigation into an alleged jump start.

Replays showed the reigning TCR International Series champion momentarily creeping in his grid slot as the starting lights came on, however the Frenchman came to a prompt stop before they faded.

The stewards ruled it did not prove enough of an advantage, but he nonetheless managed to outdrag Rob Huff’s VW Gold GTI off the line and squeezed the Englishman towards the pit wall to avert any threat from the Sébastien Loeb Racing driver on the run to Tarzan.

He was not challenged thereafter, slowly eking out a lead over the rest of the field and later backing off to win by 1.2 seconds.

Jean-Karl Vernay, Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team Audi RS3 LMS TCR - 2018 FIA WTCR Race of Netherlands

Jean-Karl Vernay survived an alleged jump start investigation to claim his second race win of the 2018 FIA WTCR season.

Huff finished in second place to consolidate a solid points haul for the weekend, while Comtoyou Racing Audi driver Frédéric Vervisch finished third to earn his third podium finish in the last five races.

The battle for fourth place proved to be the most interesting focal point of the race, with Esteban Guerrieri defending against Gordon Shedden’s WRT Audi in a race-long scrap after the Argentina managed to get the jump on the Scot at the start.

Shedden appeared quicker than the Münnich Motorsport driver, but could not capitalise on two half-chances to overtake the Honda.

He finished between Guerrieri and teammate Yann Ehrlacher – the winner of the opening race at Zandvoort – who kept a watching brief and managed his engine temperatures rather than attacking the former British Touring Car champion. Ehrlacher’s sixth place gave him the lead of the Drivers’ Championship standings by nine points over his uncle Yvan Muller.

Seventh place went to Aurélien Comte, who rounded out an excellent weekend for the DG Sport Compétition Peugeot team following his Race 1 podium and Race 2 win. He finished ahead of the second SLR VW Golf of Mehdi Bennani.

James Thompson ensured all three Münnich Motorsport Hondas finished in the points, moving up to ninth place with one of the race’s few overtaking moves on the Campos Racing Cupra of Pepe Oriola.

Gianni Morbidelli threatened to challenge for the final points’ position – the first for Team Mulsanne Alfa Romeo – but his race came undone when he collided with Oriola’s teammate John Filippi late in the race and spun. He did not attend the post-race stewards’ hearing called to review the incident and was found guilty in absentia of causing the collision, although popular consensus was that Filippi was actually to blame.

The race proved to be little more than an extended test session for the four Hyundai i30 entries, who found their previously dominant cars woefully uncompetitive in the wake of the Balance of Performance adjustments in place for the Zandvoort round. Neither early championship leaders Gabriele Tarquini or Yvan Muller, along with their respective teammates Norbert Michelisz and Thed Björk, managed to score a single point across the weekend’s three races.

The FIA WTCR’s next round takes place at the Vila Real street circuit in Portugal on 23-24 June.

2018 FIA World Touring Car Cup Race of Netherlands – Race 3 Final Classification (15 laps)
	Driver	Team	Laps	Result	Pts
1.	Jean-Karl Vernay	Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team	15	26:58.904	30
2.	Rob Huff	Sébastien Loeb Racing	15	+ 1.199	23
3.	Frédéric Vervisch	Audi Sport Team Comtoyou	15	+ 3.065	19
4.	Esteban Guerrieri	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	15	+ 4.405	16
5.	Gordon Shedden	Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team	15	+ 5.019	13
6.	Yann Ehrlacher	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	15	+ 6.869	10
7.	Aurélien Comte	DG Sport Compétition	15	+ 7.804	7
8.	Mehdi Bennani	Sébastien Loeb Racing	15	+ 12.298	4
9.	James Thompson	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	15	+ 14.241	2
10.	Pepe Oriola	Team OSCARO by Campos Racing	15	+ 18.718	1
11.	Nathanaël Berthon	Comtoyou Racing	15	+ 18.932
12.	Denis Dupont	Comtoyou Racing	15	+ 19.524
13.	Aurélien Panis	Comtoyou Racing	15	+ 20.541
14.	John Filippi	Team OSCARO by Campos Racing	15	+ 21.957
15.	Thed Björk	MRacing – YMR	15	+ 26.197
16.	Mat’o Homola	DG Sport Compétition	15	+ 28.075
17.	Norbert Nagy	Zengõ Motorsport	15	+ 28.455
18.	Gabriele Tarquini	BRC Racing Team	15	+ 29.001
19.	Bernhard van Oranje	Bas Koeten Racing	15	+ 31.277
20.	Michael Verhagen	Bas Koeten Racing	15	+ 1:03.669
21.	Gianni Morbidelli*	Mulsanne SRL	14	+ 1 lap
22.	Norbert Michelisz	BRC Racing Team	13	Retired
	Not Classified	Team	Laps	Result
DNF.	Yvan Muller	MRacing – YMR	9	Retired
DNF.	Benjamin Lessennes	Boutsen Ginion Racing	7	Wheel
DNF.	Tom Coronel	Boutsen Ginion Racing	1	Collision
DNF.	Zsolt Dávid Szabó	Zengõ Motorsport	1	Collision
DNS.	Fabrizio Giovanardi	Mulsanne SRL		Damage

* Post-Race Penalties:

Gianni Morbidelli – who was provisionally classified 21st – was issued a 30-second post-race time penalty (in absentia) for colliding with John Filippi.

Images via FIA WTCR Media