Dušan Borković was frustrated to miss out on a top ten qualifying result in the TCR Europe series at Assen, with the Target Competition driver describing the decision to remove his lap time as ‘crazy’.
Borković could only manage the 11th fastest time after having one of his lap times deleted in Q2, meaning he missed out on the top ten for race one and with it a potential improved grid position in the reversed-grid second race.
Furthermore, the Serbian driver will have to start the opening race from 14th after his grid penalty from the previous event is applied, putting him behind championship leader Mikel Azcona, to whom he is attempting to overturn a one-point deficit.
Borković blasted the way in which his lap time deletion was communicated, telling TouringCars.Net that the timing meant he was unable to put in another lap on new tyres to improve his time.
“They gave me a penalty and they didn’t tell me on the timing screen,” said Borković. “A couple of minutes later I stopped to change the tyres to do one more stint, because here you can only do one lap on the tyres and on the second lap you lose a lot. I was completely fucked.
“If they had deleted the time immediately I would have stopped to change the tyres again, because if I did it I did it on the first lap.
“But at Turn 8 you can only cut on the inside, as there is now a tyre stack, and I didn’t touch the tyres, and the outside of the corner is gravel. Everybody goes there, so I think that the stewards are just watching a little bit, because this is crazy.
“I’m frustrated, because I am P11, and I was in P4. The pity is that I was faster [than Mikel] and next we are going to Monza. I wanted to make a difference here, because I knew that I could be in the top five. Now I have to start from P14 and from there you cannot expect much.”
From the mid-pack, Borković is predicting that it could be a struggle to make progress in the two races at the Dutch circuit.
“Our car is slow on the straight and so it is impossible to get into some corners to be close for the overtaking. It’s almost impossible, so I am not thinking that something dramatic will happen.”