Dusan Borkovic says safe strategy cost him chance of pole

B3 Racing driver Dusan Borkovic will line up third on the grid for tomorrow’s first race at Zolder and second in the Single-Make Trophy class, losing one point of his championship lead to Mat’o Homola as a result, and explains that his qualifying strategy cost him a shot at pole.

Borkovic was fastest in the second test session on Friday and was fastest in free practice this morning, and looked set to vie for pole position come qualifying, but when the rain fell just after the session began, it proved impossible for anyone to improve their times after just five minutes, meaning Borkovic’s time of 1:41.576, despite being just 0.069 slower than Engstler’s Davit Kajaia, will see him start third.

“I started a little bit later in qualifying, and everyone had already done one or two laps,” said Borkovic to TouringCarTimes. “I had a different strategy as I have a points lead, so I was driving very carefully. My plan was to do a safe lap with a used set of tyres, so I pushed at maybe 80% but then I saw the rain and thought this wasn’t good. My time was an OK time, but I could have done a much better time.

“I just wanted to put a clean lap in my pocket, so I have a different strategy to the others who have nothing to lose and are pushing all the time, but this time my strategy didn’t work because of the rain.”