Unlucky weekend for Mato Homola in Thailand
28. August, 21:45, Buriram, Thailand
Mato Homola showed his high speed during both days in Thailand and this to very good 5th position on the start of the race 1 after the qualifying. Unfortunately, he didn’t finish the Race 1 due to technical problems and was 10th in the Race 2 thanks to Oriola, who pushed him out of the track and fell to the P16.
High hopes were given in Mato Homola, but they’ve been gone, after he’s been forced to retire from the race, starting from the 5th position. He had a worse start to the race, due to the clutch problems, and that meant 2 lost places. He started to speed up, but in the lap 4, he was forced to retire thanks to the broken shaft on the gearbox. Luckily, he was able to make it to the box and the chase with the time has begun.
It was very challenging for the team, to dismantle and change what was possible until the end of the race until the Parc Ferme has started. We didn’t want to lose any places for the race 2. We fixed the rest during the repair time and even managed to make several changes in the setup and Mato left the boxes 2 minutes before the pit lane closure and came safely to the start of the race 2.
Another bad start from the 6th position, as there was no time to solve the clutch problems during the repair time and immediate drop to the P8. Mato fought hard with Oriola and Kajaia, but in the last corner of the second lap was knocked off the track by Oriola, thanks to what Mato lost 8 places. He was even overtaken by Galiani under the yellow flags and safety car, which came to the track after Morbidelli’s accident. Galiana overtook even 2 more drivers, who took their position back and were punished after the race, with no penalty for Galiani. Even Oriola was not punished for his act, the biggest punishment was for Mato, who lost many positions and even got damaged car.
Mato tried to gain as many positions back as possible, but from the P16 it is really hard. He finished after tough fights on the P10.
“This was a really tough weekend. It was great on Saturday, I had really good pace and I always belonged to the TOP 5. The shame is when the things are turning against me. In the first race, it was technical damage, and in the second unfair behavior from the other driver. I am not really happy with the driving standards, as massive hit followed with pushing out of the track ended with no further action. Sometimes some of the drivers are going too far behind fair play without any punishment and I don’t like it. We still have 3 more weekends to go, with many points to be given, so I’ll focus on getting the most of them, to come back to the fight for the title of TCR champion.“
The next race is on plan in Singapore together with F1, 17.9.2016
You can watch the race of the TCR International Series on YouTube channel of TCR-TV and on http://www.tcr-series.tv/.
Results: http://tcr-series.com/index.php/events/item/buriram-international-circuit
Pictures for download: http://bit.ly/Homola_Thailand-Race
Photo Credits: B3 Racing
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