Dušan Borković feared a slow puncture in the closing laps could have taken his victory in the TCR Europe season opener at Paul Ricard away.
Pointing to the left-hander between De Beausset into Virage de Bendor as an area of particular stress on the left-hand tyres, the Serbian told TouringCars.net he started to conserve his Yokohamas in the closing stages to protect the result.
A radio problem similar to qualifying earlier, in which Borković didn’t realise he’d secured pole position until the end of the session, also left the Target Competition racer guessing as to when the final lap was over.
“At the end I didn’t hear when was the last lap, so for the last three laps I thought it was it, so I was being careful for the tyres because I felt at one point like I had a small puncture,” explained Borković.
“The long left-hander at Turn 1 as really stressful for the left tyre, but I was careful and the car finished.
“It’s a really good result and I want to say thanks to Target Competition, they prepared a top car, the Hyundai is really nice to drive.”
Borkovic now says his focus turns to adding to his points tally tomorrow and believes overtaking will be difficult at the 3.6 mile Le Castellet venue as his Hyundai i30 N struggles for straight line speed.
“I don’t have any hopes because I saw that in the middle, the people are a little bit crazy,” said Borković, referring to the chaotic scrap for positions running 4th through to 8th.
“I just want to finish the race, I don’t think I can overtake a lot, because the circuit is not so easy to overtake on, the Hyundai isn’t super-fast on the straights [so it won’t be easy].
“I want to finish with some points, because until the end of the season, one point can make the difference.”
The final race of the weekend in southern France gets underway at 15:50 tomorrow [12th May].