Mat’o Homola tops first practice session in Buriram
B3 Racing’s Mat’o Homola was fastest in the first free practice session at Buriram in his SEAT, demoting WestCoast Racing’s Gianni Morbidelli in the final minutes.
The Slovakian’s time of 1:44.199 was still a few tenths away from the pace seen in yesterday’s test session, but was good enough to top a competitive session, with the local Thai drivers mixing it with the International Series contingent.
Morbidelli was just under a tenth behind Homola, while they were followed by three Thai drivers, with the Vattana SEAT of Jack Lemvard third, Eakie BBR Kaiten’s Kantadhee Kusiri fourth and the other Vattana Honda of Narasak Ittiritpong fifth fastest.
Petr Fulín led the early part of the session in the lone Mulsanne Racing Alfa Romeo and finished sixth, with Craft-Bamboo’s Pepe Oriola taking to the track for the first time this weekend after resting his foot following an injury yesterday, finishing seventh fastest.
Jean-Karl Vernay was the fastest Volkswagen driver in eighth, with Dusan Borkovic’s SEAT and Davit Kajaia’s Volkswagen completing the top ten, with the Georgian just over a second off the pace.
James Nash set six laps in his repaired SEAT León TCR, which still shows signs of the damage sustained from his high-speed crash at Turn 3 at the end of testing. Nash finished 15th, 1.6 seconds off the pace.
The Subaru WRX STi of Top Run Motorsport was also back on track, with Luigi Ferrara setting a late improvement to go 12th fastest, setting the Subaru’s best lap of the weekend.
Free Practice 2 follows at 13:00 local time.
