Borković scores points on TCR season-finale
The field of the TCR International Series was forced to wait almost quarter of an hour to begin the penultimate race of the season on the streets of Macau. The safety barriers got so badly damaged during a previous support race that the drivers, including B3 Racing Team’s participants were left with no options but to wait for the repairs in the pitlane. Unique to this event was that both races were held right after each other on Sunday and the famous reverse grid rule was not applied this time.
Among B3 Racing Team drivers, Serbian Dušan Borković claimed the best grid position by being 5th fastest in the rain hit Q2 session ahead 9th placed Mat’o Homola and 12th Attila Tassi who were disadvantaged by the slippery surface. This time the weather remained dry, this way the drivers’ primary concern turned to avoid potential incidents during the race.
Shortly after the start of Race 1, three separate accidents happened in various sections of the circuit. B3 Racing Team’s drivers managed to avoid the hazardous situations and took advantage to improve their positions in the running order. At the end of Lap 1, the Stewards suspended the race, by that time Borković reclaimed his briefly lost 5th place ahead Homola and Tassi on 9th place.
After another long stoppage, the race was restarted behind the Safety Car and didn’t last long because the mandatory time limit. Right after the disappearance of the Safety Car, Borković attacked championship leader James Nash for 4th place and successfully passed his opponent. Homola decided to follow suit, tried to pass Nash from the outside but they touched and Homola hit the wall and blocked the way on the track.
Homola retired from the race immediately while Nash tried to nurse his car back into the pits but did not make it back to his mechanics on his own. Safety Car returned to the track and Tassi also retired because of damage his car sustained after colliding with Homola. At that time, it looked like the race would come to its end but the checkered flag did not appear. Half a lap later, Race 1 was permanently red flagged which meant that Borković was classified on 4th place but the field completed less than 75% of the distance.
Tassi returned for Race 2
Homola’s crashed car was not taken back to the pits ahead of Race 2 but B3 Racing Team successfully repaired Tassi’s damages which enabled the Hungarian prodigy to take part in Race 2 from the pitlane. The grid was formed based on the classification at the end of Race 1. This way, Borković earned the opportunity to start from 4th on the grid and despite Pepe Oriola’s attacks, he could hold onto his place until Lap 3 when Oriola took advantage of the slipstream and overtook him.
This happened shortly before Race 2 was suspended following an accident that involved Tassi’s car. The Hungarian driver crashed into another car when they tried to avoid a stopped opponent but unfortunately there was not enough room to drive by and Tassi had to retire.
During the remaining 4 laps of Race 2, Borković kept the 5th place that he earned on qualifying as well and claimed valuable points in the last round of the 2016 TCR International Series season.
Races are available at www.tcr-series.tv in English.
