Dušan Borković says that ‘the key is to be smart’ in the battle for the TCR Europe title, after the Serbian driver regained a narrow lead in the drivers’ championship standings at Assen.
From fourth on the grid the Target Competition driver fought with team-mate Kris Richard and then the CUPRA of Stian Paulsen for much of the race, with Borkovic eventually completing a pass on Paulsen with three laps to go.
The Hyundai driver explained that he enjoyed the battles with Paulsen, for which he was later given a formal reprimand for slight contact, but that he felt his team-mate had misunderstood the context of the contact between their two cars early on in the race.
“I had to work harder in this race than yesterday,” said Borković to TouringCars.Net. “I had a really bad start and I think I lost three positions.
“Then at Turn 5 there was a big mess, and I was hit by Nagy and I hit my team-mate, as it was like a train. Then my team-mate thought that I was kicking him.
“On the next lap at turn 5 I thought that he would not try to overtake me with much risk, but he obviously thought that I hit him [intentionally] on the previous lap, which I didn’t, and so he hit me, pushing me completely back.
“I had to overtake him again, and in one part, at the last corner, he was much slower than me, trying to stop me really hard
“Of course, I didn’t want to let him go, I’m fighting for the championship, and I saw Azcona pulling away.
“Then I had a wall in front of me in the name of Paulsen – he is really good. It was a good battle, but he was slower. The CUPRA was much faster on the straight today, even faster than yesterday, and I couldn’t only close the gap in some corners in the last sector.
“He didn’t make a mistake – he just had a bit of understeer at Turn 5 – and then I went in. We touched a little bit but it was a racing incident, it was nothing, and then I pulled away and was much faster than him.
“But the first two had pulled away and I couldn’t do anything about it in two or three laps, so I just calmed down and finished in third.”
Borković admitted that he is concerned about whether he can hold on to his slender two-point championship advantage after the next round in Italy, where he expects to struggle on the straights.
“I am a little bit afraid of Monza, because today the CUPRAs were unbelievable on the straight. We couldn’t catch them here – we were in fifth gear and they were pulling away three or four lengths – so in Monza it is going to be a difficult job to keep the lead of the championship.
“Then after that it is Barcelona which is the home of Azcona! So, it’s going to be really, really difficult!
“I think the key is just to be smart. Everybody is so crazy now, and there is lots of tension. I am fighting for first and second, somebody else is fighting for third and somebody else is fighting for fifth or sixth, so for everybody the position in front is important.
“It is only going to get tougher and tougher.”