Mato Homola sets incredible pole position lap in Salzburg

During Q1 there were lot of changes for the top positions, as all the drivers improved their own sectors and got faster than before during the weekend.

Mato Homola was the first who set significant laps of 1:26.737 and 1:26.204. Comini and the local driver Jäger improved on his time with a lap of 1:26.0369 for the Italian and 1:26.011 for the Austrian. Bamboo’s new driver Daniel Lloyd showed an amazing performance during the whole day, and had an incredible lap of 1:25.984 which moved him to second place, after Kajaia’s impressive 1:25.864 lap was cancelled, due to it was done under yellow flag caused by Stian Paulsen’s car which stranded in the gravel trap at Turn 5. Without his fastest lap Kajaia was dropped to 14th and out of Q2. When only few seconds left Rob Huff,Fréderic Vervisch and Gianni Morbidelli were able to cut at the last gasp and pushed the championship leader Jean-Karl Vernay out of Q2. to 13th place. Q1 finished with Colciago on top followed by Lloyd, Tassi, Jäger, Comin, Borkovic, Huff, Homola, Oriola, Vervisch, Nash and Morbidelli.

In the second part of qualifying Dusan Borkovic opened with a stunning lap of 1:25.629. He took P1 until Attila Tassi and Homola dropped the Serbian driver to third. Borkovic could not left him idle and set another top time of 1:25.558.  Mato Homola settled the matter with the pole position time of 1:25.481 followed by Borkovic and Oriola with 1:25.552. The Hungarian Tassi finished fourth with  1:25.636. However the Hungarian driver has to start race 1 from the back of the grid due to changing his car aftert he crashed heavily and damaged his Honda Civic at Turn 9 during the second testing session on Friday.  Local driver Thomas Jäger will see the green lights going off from the 4th place followed by James Nash, Rob Huff, Stefano Comini, Gianni Morbidelli, Roberto Colciago and Daniel Lloyd, who had a messy Q2 and was understandably dissapointed with his result after an incredible P2 in Q1.

Zengő Motorsport’s, Ferenc Ficza was not able to participate on the qualifying session and secluded himself from further racing this weekend after he hit the barrier hard at Turn 9 during Free Practice 1. The Hungarian driver was transported to hospital as his ribs were hit heavily by the seat of his car in the accident. Ferenc is ok, but he still has big pain and the doctors suggested 2 days rest for him. Zengő Motorsport left Salzburg and started preparing for the next event which is very important for the Hungarian team and driver as it will take place at the Hungaroring as support race of DTM next weekend.

Mat’o  Homola  (Pole)

I  have  always  had  good  results  here  in  Salzburgring,  so  I  know  this  track  suits  me  and  I  like  the  fast  corners.  From  the  beginning,  we  had  some  minor problems  in  every  session  but  we  changed  some  things  for  Qualifying  and  the  car behaved really well. We were guessing at some of the set up things, but you can see that  they worked. It’s one thing to win Qualifying, but you get more points in the races so that’s what I have to concentrate on. I don’t know how to measure the risks I took, but I know I wasn’t 100% in Turn 9. One mistake can ruin your whole weekend and I know I need the points.”

Dusan Borkovic (2nd place)

“Yesterday,  we  were  trying  to  change  some  things  on  the  car  to  improve the corner speed because we knew we were struggling. In Q1 I had some traffic and  I  made  a  few  mistakes  but  I  was  pushing.  We  are  still  struggling  a  little  bit  in  the second sector because of the bad aero but we will see tomorrow what will happen with all  of  us.  In  Q2,  I  knew  the  tyres  were  fresher  in  the  first  few  laps  but  I  made  some  stupid mistakes. By the third lap the tyres were gone. I really like the Salzburgring I crashed last year when I was P2, so hopefully this year I will finish both races, but you can be sure I will push.”

Pepe Oriola (3rd place)

“Everybody always wants to get a tow here in Salzburgring and we had a  really  good  strategy  within  the  team  which worked  in  Free  Practice  and  Q1.  I  was swapping positions with James (Nash) and Daniel (Lloyd) and the others were trying to get a tow from us. At one time, Rob (Huff) was in the middle with us and then Colciago too so I was really lucky to get the time on the last lap, but I know I could have been even faster. The Alfa cars are really strong in the first part of the straight, but as Dušan said, we know they  have  aero  problems.  We  are  back  on  the  pace, it’s  been  a  long  time  since  I  did  a Qualifying press conference, so it’s good to be back!”