Mat’o Homola hails ‘unexpected’ pole position

Mat’o Homola took pole position in today’s qualifying at Estoril, Portugal. The Slovakian driver was more than a tenth quicker than second-placed Gianni Morbidelli, setting an unreachable time early in the second segment of the session.

“It was absolutely unexpected,” admitted the B3 Racing driver to TouringCarTimes. “I was not fully happy with myself and with the car before I got to qualifying, so this is awesome.”

The Slovakian made some changes on the car: “We tested on Wednesday and had a good base, but unfortunately we virtually had no free practice 1, which was a shame. We made some changes after the second free practice session and they were a very good step forward.”

As for the race, the B3 Racing driver is optimistic: “I am optimistic, I want to win. I start from pole position, but I know it is nothing, because in the race it’s all about pace, it’s different from qualifying. We will see, of course we will do our best to do achieve a good result.”

Homola has performed some long runs when he tested his SEAT on Wednesday, and believes the tarmac of the track will tend to wear the tyres quite quickly: “We have done some long runs, also on old tyres, but tomorrow is another day and the tarmac is aggressive on the tyres, and when you have a lot of torque it’s complicated. I’m not worried though, everyone will struggle with that. I hope we will do a better job compared to the others.”

Having joined the TCR International Series this year, Homola had to try to figure out the differences between his current Michelin tyres and the Yokohamas he used before: “I drove this car with different tyres compared to the Michelins, we are learning this new type of tyre step-by-step. The compound is harder, but it’s the driver’s job to adapt to it and I am trying to do it, helped by my team.”

The first race is scheduled for 11.05 local time.