James Nash admits that he still doesn’t understand the contact that ended his title chances in the TCR International Series in Macau, which came from contact with Mat’o Homola.
Nash went into the weekend leading the standings by 17 points over Stefano Comini. However the Brit’s weekend quickly unravelled in race one, when contact with Homola at Lisboa bend after the race restarted broke the left-rear suspension on Nash’s car.
Nash had been running in fourth at the time, but the damage forced him to limp back to the pits and retire from the race. What was worse for the Brit is that the finishing order for race two was determined by the race one result, putting him down the order on the grid.
After his Craft-Bamboo Racing team managed to repair his car, Nash started race two from 18th on the grid.
In the end, race two proved to be almost as interrupted as race one, and half points were again awarded. The lack of racing laps limited Nash’s progression through the field, and he ultimately missed out on the title to Comini by just 3.5 points.
“Overall you have to say that we’ve had a good season but, unfortunately it wasn’t quite good enough,” summarised Nash. “It was a difficult and disappointing weekend, but that’s how things go sometimes.”
Nash admits that he doesn’t understand why Homola tried to pass him around the outside at Lisboa, with the incident ending both drivers’ races and causing the second red flag period of the race.
“Regarding the race one incident with Homola I still don’t understand where he wanted to pass. There was no space. It was silly….”
“The championship has slipped through my fingers and although it is not the outcome we wanted I cannot be more thankful and proud of the team. Together we pulled the team’s championship out of the bag and managed to secure second place in the overall standings. This weekend has been a roller coaster ride but l will come back fighting.
“I must though offer my congratulations to Stefano Comini. He is a worthy champion and for him to have retained the TCR title is a fantastic achievement.”