Mat’o Homola hopes to finally convert pole to victory in Thailand

DG Sport Compétition’s Mat’o Homola hopes to convert pole position in the first race in Thailand into his first victory on Sunday, after having missed out on his last two opportunities in Austria and Germany.

The Slovakian was fastest in qualifying for the Bahrain round of the championship earlier this season, but started from the back of the grid due to an engine change penalty, leaving his first true pole to come at the Salzburgring in June, but he dropped behind the Alfa Romeo of Dusan Borkovic who went on to win the race.

The 23-year-old’s next opportunity came in July at Oschersleben, where he started from pole for the reversed grid second race, but lost out on the final lap to WestCoast Racing’s Gianni Morbidelli.

Homola put his Opel Astra TCR on pole again for the first race on Sunday on his first flying lap in the second part of qualifying, and was never bettered.

“It was an awesome session,” said Homola. “Thanks to my team, as we had a problem in Q1, but they repaired it very quickly, so I could do at least one lap in Q1 so I got into Q2. In Q2 there was a red flag, which caused a bit of chaos but I managed to do one quick lap which was enough.

“The car’s behaving exactly as I want, and I like this circuit,” he added. “I’ve been second twice, so I’ll try to be first. I’ve just done one part of my job; the second part is tomorrow where I’ll focus on the races.”