Photo: TCR Series

Mat’o Homola takes his third pole of 2017 in Thailand

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Mat’o Homola has claimed pole position in Thailand, his third of the season, in a session where both of the Alfa Romeos faltered, despite both drivers Davit Kajaia and Dusan Borkovic at times looking set to lead the session.

Dusan Borkovic had set the fastest time during the first laps in Qualifying 1, before the Alfa Romeo driver hit the tyre stack at the exit of Turn 1 and damaged his suspension, stopping at the next corner with the session red flagged for his car’s recovery.

During the second wave of laps, Norbert Michelisz popped his M1RA Honda Civic on top of the time sheets ahead of the DG Sport Compétition Opel of Mat’o Homola, with the other M1RA Honda of Attila Tassi third.

The big names to fall in Q1 included WestCoast Racing’s Gianni Morbidelli, Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Dan Lloyd, Comtoyou’s Fred Vervisch and Team WRT’s Rob Huff, who were 13th-16th and just missed the cut, but Morbidelli soon got a reprieve as the stewards excluded Borkovic from qualifying due to receiving outside assistance, so even though his original time had still stood to make him seventh, he’ll now be forced to start from the back of the grid in Race 1.

At the start of Qualifying 2, the Team WRT Volkswagen of Jean-Karl Vernay, the Craft-Bamboo SEAT of Pepe Oriola and the GE-Force Alfa Romeo of Davit Kajaia all went wide at Turn 1, with the race director ruling their laps out before they were even completed.

Kajaia crossed the line and was fastest, but his lap was soon deleted. Things then got worse for the Georgian, as smoke bellowed out of his Giulietta, and he stopped at Turn 2, just as his team-mate had 20 minutes earlier.

Homola meanwhile had set the best time, a 1:43.093, and a new circuit lap record at the Buriram International Circuit, while James Nash was one of the few drivers to improve during the final moments, closing to just 0.004 seconds of Homola’s time during the last five minutes of the session.

Norbert Michelisz qualified third in the M1RA Honda, with championship leader Jean-Karl Vernay qualifying fourth in his Team WRT Volkswagen, extending his championship lead over Attila Tassi by one point to three, as Tassi qualified in fifth.

With the top ten reversed for Race 2, Boutsen Ginion Racing’s Aurélien Panis will start from pole position in the Honda Civic, ahead of Stefano Comini’s Audi and local driver Kantadhee Kusiri’s Volkswagen.