Succesful weekend in Spa
Press release no.6, 7. May 15:30, Spa-Francorchamps
Dramatic second race in Spa-Francorchamps!
The second race on Belgian circuit Spa-Francorchamps brought many dramatic moments, but Mato Homola has achieved a great 4th place for the second time this weekend!
The third racing weekend of TCR International series started on Mato’s favorite track. „I really like this track, which is like Estoril old and there is not much place for mistakes. Legendary Eau Rouge is simply incredible,“ said Mato. The team has focused in Free practice sessions on the preparation of the car for the race and looking for the best setup.
„We have changed the setup just after the FP1 and we have eliminated oversteering behavior of the car and I am now happy with it. Looking forward to the new tires, as we have been doing both of the trainings on the old ones.“, said Mato after the Free practice sessions.
Mato’s goal in the first qualifying was to make a time, which will be enough for the secure place for the Q2. 12 drivers from Q1 continues to Q2. Mato fulfilled this goal without any issues and immediately in the lap 3 he made 5th best time, which was enough for the Q2. In addition, Vernay lost his fast lap due to the crossing of the track limits, so Mato moved to 4th.
10 minutes of Q2 doesn’t give much time for fast laps. Mato managed to make 4th best time, but the cancellation of his time due to track limits break meant, he needed to make 1 more lap. “I started the last lap well, but I received the information through the radio, that my lap was canceled and I needed to make 1 more. This communication was a little disturbing for me and lost my concentration a bit and made 3 mistakes in sector 2, what cost me several tenths. My time was good for the 7th position, but I will start from P6 as Vernay lost his best time due to several breakings of the track limits,” said Mato after the qualification. For the first race, he started from P6 and to the second race from P5.
Mato started the first race at famous Spa-Francorchamps circuit from the 6th position, but immediately after the start he was able to get to the 5th position, as Sergey Afanasyev didn’t start well and stopped. Mato’s teammate Dusan Borkovic started from the pole, but he lost 2 positions during the race and went to third. Mato fought mainly with J.K. Vernay, who got over him later on and Mato fell to 6th. Vernay had one warning for not keeping the limits of the track and with his driving, it was just a question of time when he will be punished with a drive-through for not keeping the track limits. Mato followed Vernay very closely, and Vernay was pushing really hard on J. Nash ahead of him. This resulted in Vernay pushing Nash out of the track, what resulted in a drive-through penalty for Vernay and this meant final 4th position for Mato.
“I had a very good start and I was working on overtaking J. Nash. It was hard, but I had good speed. Later on, Vernay got over me, but at the end we have seen, how unpredictable motorsport is and I ended up fourth. Tomorrow I’ll start from 5th place, so I’m looking forward!”
Today’s race brought many dramatic moments just after the start. Mato succeeded to get the 4th position and stay in the slipstream of the cars in front of him. Mato was able to overtake Buri ahead of him in beautiful maneuver and got to the 3rd, but 2 turns later came the mistake.
“I was able to overtake Buri, very clean, but two corners later I caught several stones from Comini to my windscreen and passengers window, which broke afterward and I received several pieces of glass to my face as well. That made me little unfocused, I made a mistake which was good for Buri and he got his third place back.” Mato has successfully finished the race in the 4th position. “It’s already my third place this season and I would like to change this string to podium places finally. It gave me important points for the championship so I can say, that I am happy with the result.”
We would like to thank all our partners and B3 Racing team and we would like to invite you to follow the next race on 22.5. in legendary Italian Imola circuit.
You can watch both races on http://www.tcr-series.tv/, or on YouTube channel TCR TV – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoSlmLSprEnTz7HjmMb7HBw
Results: http://tcr-series.com/index.php/events/item/circuit-de-spa-francorchamps
Pictures for download: http://bit.ly/Homola_Spa-race
Photo Credits: B3 Racing
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