“Straight line speed may cost us at Monza” says Dusan Borkovic
Target Competition’s Dusan Borkovic fears he may struggle to maintain his slender TCR Europe championship lead heading into the final two rounds, despite outscoring title rival Mikel Azcona at Assen.
The Serbian finished sixth in the opening race of the weekend after starting 10th due to a penalty carried over from Budapest, while Azcona finished three places behind in ninth.
Borkovic followed Azcona in race two to finish third and keep a two point lead in the standings, but the Hyundai i30 N TCR driver remains cautions ahead of Monza next month.
“We’re losing three lengths to the Cupras on the straights. So if it stays like this at Monza, then we will be struggling,” Borkovic told TouringCarTimes.
“Two points is nothing really. There are 100 points still available so you can gain points and lose them easily. Look at Nagy today, he was level with Azcona and now he is behind, so anything can happen.
“It will be exciting in the last two round. It’s getting hotter and hotter every weekend between me and Azcona. He’s a really good driver and I never had any contact with him. He’s a very clean driver.”
Borkovic spent much of the second race stuck behind the Cupra of Stian Paulsen, with the Norwegian using all the track and more to stay ahead.
Paulsen eventually made a mistake at turn five, allowing Borkovic to robustly steal the final spot on the podium.
“I knew Paulsen was slow and he was defending really hard. I also knew I had to get past him because the gap to the front was getting larger,” said Borkovic.
“He was cutting the corners all the time so it was clear he was struggling. Then he went a little bit wide at turn five and that allowed me to go down the inside.
“There was a little bit of contact but that is racing. He has his own version and I have mine. He was two seconds slower than everyone so I needed to make the move then.”
For his part, Paulsen saw the incident differently, and claimed Borkovic exceeded track limits to make the pass stick. Both Borkovic and Paulsen were called to the stewards after the race.
“Borkovic overtook me at turn five with all four wheels over the white line, like one-and-a-half, two metres over the line,” Paulsen told TouringCarTimes.
“So I’ll be quite surprised if he doesn’t get a penalty for that.”
After deliberation, the stewards decided that no punishment would be given to Borkovic for his pass on Paulsen, instead opting to give the Serbian a reprimand.
