Photo: TCR Media

Hard fight with Gianni Morbidelli cost Mat’o Homola a podium finish

Mat’o Homola finished fourth in his B3 Racing SEAT León TCR after starting from pole position. The Slovakian had taken the lead after briefly losing it to WestCoast Racing’s Gianni Morbidelli, but led most of the race after an overtaking move on the Italian’s Honda on the second lap.

“I had a good start, better than in Bahrain, so I was focused on opening a gap on Morbidelli and the others once I passed Gianni,” said Homola to TouringCarTimes. “I didn’t push as hard as it probably seems, but I knew that Gianni wanted to overtake me in the second half of the race and he did better with the tyres. I felt the degradation after the eighth or ninth lap of the race.”

Despite losing out on a possible win, or at least a podium, the Slovakian cherishes the points he was able to collect with fourth: “I’m a bit disappointed but it’s racing, and I have a few good points after a disaster in Bahrain, so I will try to score more with a few setup changes in Race 2.”

When asked if in hindsight he should have avoided losing time in a battle to keep the lead from Morbidelli’s attacks, Homola agreed he should have made the Italian’s life easier, but defended his choice of battling it out: “It’s always easy to decide which way I should have gone after the race, but honestly I thought Gianni’s tyres would fade as well. In the first few laps I had a good pace, but like I said he did better than me. After the race I can say I should have let him through and focused on the podium, but I can’t change the past, so I will have to wait for another podium chance, hopefully in the next race already.”

Despite some contacts during the duels with Morbidelli and Leopard Racing’s Jean-Karl Vernay and Stefano Comini, Homola has no hard feelings towards any of the drivers involved: “I had some big fights with the guys behind, but this is TCR and everyone wants to see these battles. I had to fight, and I showed my team, my car and I are fast. I think the battles are in the nature of TCR, so it is okay.”

Homola brings his points total to 21 after yesterday’s pole position and today’s fourth, 34 shy of the lead.