Second place in Imola!
Press release no.7, 22. May 18:45, Imola
The fourth racing weekend of TCR International Series, so race 7 and 8 were held today in legendary Imola. The biggest difference compared to other races is the thing, that everything, including Free Practice, Qualifying, and the races was done in one day, so to say in endurance mode.
The day started with the free practice, where we needed to adjust the brakes for the races and then we focused on the setup. Mato has made 6th best time in FP1, what was quite a good result, but due to Free Practice 2 coming just 10 minutes after the first session, there was no time to make some big changes. Mato was able just to make 13th best time, and he wasn’t happy. “I’m not 100% happy with the car, it’s jumping a lot, so we got to do some changes. I hope, that they will be the good one.”
Qualifying started at 11:30. Really tight schedule caused a lot of driving in the short period of time, so there is literally no place for mistakes. “First 12 drivers are really strong and the differences are so small. My time wasn’t the best, but I will have a good position for both races. Race 1 starting from P6 and to the race 2 I will start from the P5, what is good”, said Mato after the session.
The first race was truly dramatic. Mato lost 2 places just after the start, but that was just the beginning. There was plenty of collisions and also track limits breakings, but there were no punishments given out. The big accident happened in Variante Alta, where Gianni Morbidelli slowed down from the 1st position due to issues with steering and his team-mate Alain Menu crashed into him. Dusan Borkovic collided with Morbidelli as well. Safety Car was called out just after this. Mato was on 7th after the restart, but unluckily he went together with Jordi Oriola out of the track in Villeneuve. Mato lost rear diffuser, but on 10th. The drama was not over yet, Borkovic and Vernay had a collision, during which Vernay pushed Borkovic out of the track. Mato overtook Vernay later on and ended up on great 5th position!
Mato started to the race 2 from P4. Attila Tassi lost 2 places from his pole position just after the start. “I knew, that I need to get over Attila as soon as possible, as I wanted to catch up with first 2 drivers. Attila made a small mistake, which was an opportunity to go to P3. I needed to attack Gene as well, as Mikhail Grachev on P1 was very quick and was getting away”, said Mato. The big fight was behind him when Stefano Comini got close to Pepe Oriola and got over him. This battle slowed them down, and Mato was relatively safe. “I wanted to attack the first position, but my tires were destroyed and I had not enough speed to get there.”
But I am now really happy with my first podium in TCR International Series! I was 4th three times and I knew, that it has to come. I would like to thank my partners, family, girlfriend Linda and the whole team for a great job, they’ve done. It enabled me to finish on the second place! I hope, that the podium series just starts!” On the press conference after the race, Mikhail Grachev said: “I felt Mato behind me and I knew, that he is able to push and to get over me. But I was able to resist.”
Next race of TCR International Series will be held on 4.-5.6.in Salzburg, Austria.
You can watch both races on www.tcr-series.tv and on youtube channel TCR-TV.
Results: http://tcr-series.com/index.php/events/item/autodromo-di-imola-italy
Photo for download: http://bit.ly/Homola_Imola-race
Photo Credits: B3 racing
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