TCR Salzburgring 2016 –
Free Practice & Qualifying

Flash news no. 1, June 4th,  18:00, Salzburgring

Here we are, 2 weeks after great results from Imola, coming to Austrian Salzburgring, where rounds 9 and 10 of TCR International Series are about to begin. We are happy to announce that the former engineer from Homola Motorsport, Jaro Krajci, has joined B3 Racing team and will be working with the team as Mato’s engineer from this weekend on.

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Saturday started with Free Practice 1 and 2. The team has focused in the first session on brakes, suspension, and the correct tire pressures. Our schedule was a bit interrupted by small issues with rear aerodynamic panels and the rear diffuser, as the car is reaching really high speeds on the straights for a long time. Due to this Mato was not able to set a quick lap.

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Luckily, this was fixed for the Free Practice 2 and Mato started to do the fast laps. Very soon he has achieved the 2nd best time just behind his teammate Dusan Borkovic, but later on has dropped to the P7. „We have achieved a good result and we know, what to adjust for the qualifying to be able to show the speed. We know that we have a good pace and we will try to maintain it for the qualifying session.”

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Just before the Q1, the first heavy clouds appeared above the Salzburgring. It was sure, that the water will play its game during today’s qualifying. Unfortunately, in the second fast lap, Mato had an accident. „I knew, that I need to push from the very beginning, but my rear tires were not warm enough and I had huge oversteer. I hit the tire barriers with my left rear and then front. I thought it was over, but then I tried to start the car and it worked.

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So I drove slowly back to the pits.” The team has discovered a slight damage on the front splitter, which pushed the right front wheel. The guys succeeded to repair it and Mato went back on track, right when it started raining. Mato was able to set 11th best time, so he proceeded to Q2.

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The team had to change the car setup to wet and change the tires. „Just after the start of the Q2, I was struggling. It’s possible, that it was the result of the previous hit, my steering wheel was moved a little and the geometry was not 100% correct. I don’t want to blame the car only, but maybe under all circumstances, I couldn’t be faster. And I wanted and I believed, it would be enough for the P10. However, just before the session ended Afanasyev did a better lap time and moved me to the P11.

Mato will, therefore, start tomorrow to the both races from P11.

You can watch the race live on www.tcr-series.tv and in the TV on Sport1 and Sport2 channels.

Programme of the weekend:

Sunday, 5.6.
10:00 – 10:10 Shake Down
12:35 – 13:05 Race 1
13:15 Podium Race1
14:05 – 14:35 Race 2
14:45 Podium Race 2

Results: http://tcr-series.com/index.php/events/item/salzburgring-austria

Photos to download: http://bit.ly/Homola_Salzburgring-race
Photo Credits: B3 racing

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