Mat’o Homola still targeting title despite dreadful weekend in Thailand

Slovakia’s Mat’o Homola had a weekend to forget at the Buriram International Circuit, after the B3 Racing SEAT driver picked up just two points over the course of the weekend, but isn’t letting go of his championship aspirations.

The 22-year-old qualified in fifth position and was running strongly in Race 1 before his driveshaft broke down at Turn 5 and he recovered to the pits.

The Hungarian team managed to complete a full repair during the 15-minute repair time, allowing him to take up his sixth position spot on the grid, but further dramas in the race saw him just pick up a solitary point with tenth.

“It was a bad weekend for us,” said Homola to TouringCarTimes. “We had good pace in testing, and qualifying was also very good as I was in the top five, but in the race I made a bad start and then I had a broken driveshaft, but thanks for the team who worked really hard to repair it so I could start Race 2.”

“(But then in Race 2) there was a big fight at the start, and (Pepe) Oriola crashed into me at the last corner. He just pushed me off by about ten metres and he ruined my race.”

Oriola explained the incident occurred as he had got dirt on his tyres after going off-line following Gianni Morbidelli’s crash. The stewards investigated the contact but decided to take no further action.

“After that, a few drivers overtook me under the safety car, and I was stuck behind (Rafaël) Galiana for a while, so it was really a bad weekend,” added Homola.

Homola has dropped one spot in the standings to sixth, and is 57 points behind championship leader James Nash with 165 available from the last three meetings.

“I still want to win the title, that’s my only goal,” said Homola. “There’s still a chance. There are a lot of points left in three weekends, and you can see what can happen, some days people are winning, the other days they’re out with contact.”