Nathanaël Berthon, Gabriele Tarquini and Jean-Karl Vernay attended the Race 1 virtual press conference at WTCR Race of Slovakia. A transcript follows.

WTCR Race of Slovakia, Slovakia Ring, October 9-11
WTCR − FIA World Touring Car Cup, rounds 5, 6 and 7 of 16


Circuit Lounge, Slovakia Ring, October 11, 2020


In attendance:
Nathanaël Berthon, Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport, first position
Gabriele Tarquini, BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse, second position
Jean-Karl Vernay, Team Mulsanne, third position

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO/WATCH THE VIDEO: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lt5xcbkio7kjnrx/AAD66p0uH9cImAZBwjRzd0NHa?dl=0

RACE 1 REPORT:
https://www.fiawtcr.com/wtcr-race-1-flash-berthon-clinches-first-victory/

Q:
Nate, congratulations. Talk us through that race, in particular that side-by-side action after the start with Nicky Catsburg.

NB:
First of all, I’m very happy for the team and for myself of course, but it’s a team effort and the guys did an amazing job. So thanks to all the team. Definitely this race was not easy even if we had a big gap at the end. The start was quite tricky because it was a bit more wet on the left side than the right. In the end we managed to do quite a reasonable start and Nicky made a better start than me. It was a very fair fight, it was something I really like to be involved in. You know, in the WTCR sometimes there is quite a lot of contact and this battle was really fair, so thanks to him. I really enjoyed it. And then, it’s amazing, I’m very happy, it’s my first win in this championship. I’ve had a few poles, but this time I hope I will keep the result. We are always fighting, pushing to the max everywhere and I’m very happy for everybody.

Q:
Presumably your race strategy now is to keep out of harm’s way as much as possible, given that you start from the DHL Pole Position for Race 3 too?

NB:
Yeah, you always want to be out of trouble, but you never know. Of course, I will try to do the best race as possible and we’ve lost already a lot of points [this season] so definitely we have to be clever. I don’t know how the weather will change today, whether it will be fully dry or whether we will have another shower. It takes a long time to dry out at this track. We’ll see. To be honest, it is as it is, everybody is the same, so we have to be smart, don’t make mistakes and have a good set-up as well, and take some points home.

Q:
You seem to have good tyre management with the new Goodyears. What have you learnt from them so far?

GT:
Not a lot unfortunately because it was the first time I used rain tyres. I tried on the warm-up lap before the race, but I think it was impossible to use the rain tyres on the front, so like 90 per cent of the grid we started with a mix solution, let me say the English solution because I saw it many times in England. And it works. In the beginning it was very tricky, my car was very good, especially in the first part of the race. I tried to attack because I am not looking for the title. It is the first time I can do my race without thinking about points and strategy, so I fully attacked. I enjoyed it a lot, especially in the first part. I tried to push to the end, but Berthon was much faster than me. He had a big gap and I was never in a position to put him under pressure because in these conditions it is very easy to make mistakes. My strategy was to be closer, but it was impossible.

Q:
We heard from Nate that the battle was very fair, but we heard from you that almost the opposite was true. Talk us through it from your perspective.

JKV:
It was not terrible, but for sure he does not make a lot of effort to let you pass. He was quite slow for some reason, I don’t know why. He was super-slow and after Gabriele overtook us on the outside with a very nice move I think it was the game of Hyundai to slow me down so Gabriele could have a little gap. But that’s all, it wasn’t bad, it was more like a joke. But talking about the race, I think we can be very happy. We started P3 but like I said I was a bit afraid starting on the left side, but finally we didn’t lose position and we kept calm. We stayed clear in the first two laps and tried to avoid a collision, and we’re on the podium so I’m super-happy for the team, it’s a great effort, we had some little issue, and the guys worked really hard last night. It’s a good podium. Race 2 we’re going to start up front again and hopefully we can have another one.