Mato Homola on podium again!
Press release no.9, 5. June 18:45, Salzburgring
Mato Homola, Slovak race driver continues his podium string with a fantastic third place on Sazlburgring! He managed to be third in the race 1 and fifth in the second!
After two successful practice sessions and less successful qualifying we started the Sunday with the short shakedown. Mato managed to be the fastest of 15 drivers on the start. This proved, that Mato can be very fast and that the track suits him very well.
The weather played a big role today as well and therefore big uncertainty if it will rain or not. The team has decided, that Mato will start to the race on the dry setup. Mato started from 11th position with another big names, as Kajaia, Comini or Nash behind him. The big drama happened immediately in the first corner, with several drivers colliding together. Mato was able to avoid the crashed cars and continued in the race.
Race marshals have decided to send the safety car to the track to recover Afanasyev in the lap 5. This helped the whole field to reunite together . Pepe Oriola was leading the race for a long time, but in the lap 13 was forced to retire due to the technical issues. Mato was slowly moving up in the ranking, and in the lap 13 has moved to the P4. The race was extended to 17 laps, due to the safety car.
The last lap brought drama in the last few corners. Borkovic fought with Nash for the 2nd and this resulted in contact and puncture on Dusan’s car. He ran out of the track and to the barriers. Mato moved to third thanks to this and continues in the podium string, which started in Imola! “I wasn’t happy with my qualification result but the shakedown changed my mood and I knew, that I am one of the fastest in the field and I will be able to find my way through! I made no mistakes and it resulted in the 3rd place!
10 minutes to start of the race 2 – and everything looked as it will be the dry race. First drops arrived just 2 minutes later and the organizers have informed, that the start is 5 minutes postponed.
The team changed the important things for the wet race and changed the tires for the rain. Several drivers did not change their tires and hoped for the dry race, but already in formation lap came the heavy rain and many drivers went to boxes for the tire change. Thanks to this the start was no drama, as there were only 8 cars ready. This meant immediate movement to the 7th for Mato and good position for next improvement. Circuit location in the mountains caused some parts being wetter than others.
Davit Kajaia had massive aquaplaning on the finish straight and hit the tire barriers. Due to this, he retired from the race and from the 2nd position. Safety car pulled out and slowed down the race. The restart came 3 laps later and Mato managed to finish the race on the great 5th position. “We have made a decision to start on the rain tires which showed up to be good. I was a little disappointed in the morning from my starting position but luckily it ended up as a great weekend for me with a lot of points!”
Mato is currently on the 6th position in the series ranking, with just 18 points to the first driver!
Next race is on plan in 2 weeks, 18.-19.6. in Oschersleben, Germany.
You can watch the race on www.tcr-series.tv and in the TV on Sport1 and Sport2 channels.
Results: http://tcr-series.com/index.php/events/item/salzburgring-austria
Pictures to download: http://bit.ly/Homola_Salzburgring-race
Photo Credits: B3 Racing
SK
EN