B3 Racing’s Dušan Borković is pleased to have scored another podium in the TCR International Series, and admits that he is not disappointed to have lost out on the win, citing a good points haul as crucial in the championship battle.
SEAT racer Borković already took a maximum five points from qualifying on pole position earlier in the day, and followed the maiden pole with a second podium of the season in race one.
Borković, like rival Pepe Oriola, lost out to the fast-starting Honda of Aku Pellinen at the beginning of the race, with Oriola also getting past later on the opening lap.
Despite getting stronger as the race progressed, the Serbian racer admits that he didn’t want to re-pass Oriola due to being wanting to avoid unnecessary risk at the end of the race.
“My aim was to gain the points, because in Estoril it was really bad,” said Borković to TouringCars.Net. “I wanted to get some points. I saw at the start that Aku was going to overtake me, and he made a big gap before the first corner, being maybe two cars in front. Then in the second corner, before Eau Rouge he had 50 m or more.
“In corners seven, eight and nine I made a mistake, I had oversteer and then Pepe was inside and he touched me a bit. It was all fair – it’s racing – but then we lost a little bit more from Aku.
“I was losing [time] in the middle sector for a few laps, and then in the middle of the race I caught Pepe a little bit. We were both catching Aku, but in the last two laps I saw that Pepe was really strong, and as we were fairly similar, I decided I would not overtake him for sure, because it would be a big risk and I didn’t want to take that risk.
“On the last lap I decided to ease off and to be sure of P3 because I didn’t want to make any mistakes.”
Borković believes that starting from tenth for the second race on Saturday will be a big challenge, and revealed that he has already accepted that simply scoring points would be good enough.
“It’s going to be difficult, because I beat all the other drivers in qualifying and I made a big gap and I could have been even faster, but in the race the difference is smaller; everything is about keeping with the tyres. The guy who keeps the tyres will be P1.
“Pepe is experienced with [managing] his tyres in touring cars and he knows how to manage them. Tomorrow will be really risky because all of the other drivers have heated heads! They are all on the maximum attack.
“Tomorrow I have to have the same aim – I hope to improve and maybe take a few points. I think that from the weekend I already have enough points.”