Dramatic finish of the TCR season for Mato Homola in Macau
Press release no. 21, 20. November, 17.00, Macau
Mato Homola was constantly improving his pace in Macau with every session, but then all of a sudden cold shower came in the first race. Mato was pushed to the barriers in the T3 of lap 4 in the race 1.
The first race was stopped just after the first lap when series of collisions happened. 3 cars in the T1, Morbidelli in the T2 and several corners later followed by another driver, what emerged in the safety car followed by the red flags. Mato has moved after the great start from the P9 to the P6 and left the track from the same position. Cleaning and repairing of the track took a long time and there were only 5 minutes left after the race was restarted.
Nash hasn’t had the best pace this weekend and was overtook by Borkovic just after the restart and Mato wanted to use the same opportunity. “I was on the outside when going out of the T2, Oriola took the advantage and got just behind Nash immediately. I went behind Dusan (Borkovic) and used his slipstream and hoped to overtake Nash in the following corner. I even managed to get a little bit ahead of James, but it was nowhere to go for me, not in front of him, nor behind him as there were cars. I hoped, that we both will squeeze to the corner, I even left enough space for James, but he did not for me,” said Mato after the race.
Mato ended up in the barriers, followed by other cars and the race was stopped again. Unfortunately, there was no chance to repair Mato’s car and he was not able to start in the Race 2. As the Race 1 didn’t finish with more than 75% of the laps, there were only half of the points awarded to the drivers.
This accident has stopped any hopes for the better result in the overall classification of the championship. Thanks to the fact, that there were only half points in both of the races, Mato kept his 5th position in the overall ranking. It is really important to mention, that Mato started in Macau for the first time and most of the other drivers in the front have been here before and Mato was able to keep the pace with them despite that.
Mato’s evaluation of the season is rather positive: “Of course, I am a little sad from today, but when I look back to the whole season, I am happy. Yes, there are things to improve, or I could’ve done something differently, but I have proven, that I have my space in the big series like this. I am already looking forward to the next season!”
You can watch the races on the TCR YouTube channel, TCR International Series Facebook fan page, or www.tcr-series.tv.
Results: http://tcr-series.com/index.php/events/item/macau
Pictures to download: http://bit.ly/Homola_Macau-Race
Photo Credits: B3 Racing
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