Farfus furious with Menu.

Augusto Farfus has hit out at Alain Menu after having his weekend ruined by a crash in the opening stages of the first World Touring Car race at Brands Hatch.

Having arguably been the fastest driver overall this weekend, Farfus had made the most of a relatively light BMW to place it on pole position for the first race.

However, after rounding Paddock Hill Bend with no problems, Farfus was hit by Menu on the run up to Druids, knocking him wide. Then as Farfus attempted to get back on line, he was tagged by Nicola Larini and sent careering into the barriers.

Although Farfus was philosophical about the hit from Larini due to the fact he was still recovering from the first contact, he was livid with the driving of Menu that led to his eventual retirement from the race.

"Menu hit me without reason and suddenly everything was gone," he told Crash.net Radio. "I don't understand why these things happen in a race of 14 laps. Why do we have to throw away a whole weekend in just a second corner? It hurts a bit.

"You can see that my car is straight and he just hits me. I got hit by Larini, but it was all started at the start of the corner, not the end of it."

It is not the first time Menu and Farfus have come together, with the Swiss driver disqualified from last year's race at Brands Hatch for spinning the BMW on the home straight.

Interestingly, when asked after qualifying whether he was worried about having Menu alongside him, Farfus claims he had plenty of respect for him because he apologised straight away on that occasion. However, with both races over with, Farfus claims he had not been approached by Menu as of yet.

"He should come to me. I expect that he comes to me and we should talk, but maybe he hasn't seen the image. I have seen the image a million times and it is clear to me.

Farfus did salvage something from the weekend though, scything his way up the order in the second race from 24th on the grid to cross the line sixth. However, while he was delighted with the result, it merely makes him think of what would have been possible from the front.

"Race two was fantastic. We showed our performance, but that was no surprise to us. The problem was race one."