Mat’o Homola claims victory in first TCR Europe race of the year

Mat’o Homola converted his pole position into victory in the opening TCR Europe race of the season at the Hungaroring, despite late-race pressure from Target Competition team-mate Josh Files.

Homola led the field away at the start as Files moved up to second, whilst front-row starter Andreas Bäckman lost out at the first two corners with a poor start, dropping into the pack and then making contact with WRT’s Santiago Urrutia at Turn 2.

The incident saw the Uruguayan racer retire on the spot from his maiden TCR race, whilst Bäckman dropped down to 16^th place by the end of the first lap.

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At the front Homola was able to open up a slight advantage over Files in the early stages of the race, with the Brit facing pressure from the Peugeot of Julien Briché in third and M Racing’s Nelson Panciatici in fourth.

In the end the Slovak driver was able to hold on for a first TCR Europe victory, despite late-race pressure from Files in the closing laps.

Panciatici scored a podium for M Racing on his and the team’s début in the series, making it a Hyundai podium lock-out at the front after getting past Briché towards the end of the race.

Frenchman Briché was nevertheless the best of the Peugeot drivers in fourth, ahead of the third Target Hyundai of Dušan Borković in fifth, the Serbian driver passing the fast-starting Peugeot of Aurélien Comte for the position at Turn 2 on lap five.

UPDATE: Briché was later excluded from the result due to his car being found to be underweight, promoting Borković to fourth and all subsequent drivers up one place.

DG Sport’s Comte had started strongly, from 14^th on the grid up to fifth on the first lap, but the Frenchman slipped back in the mid-stage of the race, also losing out to M1RA’s Dániel Nagy on lap six and Comtoyou Racing’s Gilles Magnus on lap seven.

Comte took the chequered flag in eighth behind Nagy and Magnus, whilst WestCoast Racing’s Gianni Morbidelli was ninth and Jessica Bäckman completed the top ten.

Andreas Bäckman fought back in the closing stages of the race to claim 11^th, battling hard with fellow Hyundai racer Luca Filippi in the closing laps. The Swede eventually secured the position when Filippi locked up heading into Turn 2, allowing Bäckman to claim the place for good.

On his début in TCR Filippi took 12^th, ahead of Teddy Clairet’s Peugeot in 13^th and the Vuković Motorsport Renault of John Filippi in 14^th.

Peugeot driver Jimmy Clairet claimed the final points position in 15^th, just ahead of the second Renault of Wolf-Power Racing’s Alex Morgan.

Belgian racers Stéphane Lémeret and Maxime Potty picked up drive-through penalties for jump starts, dropping the former to 28^th. Potty had already retired from the race with damage on his Volkswagen by the time his penalty was issued.

The second M Racing Hyundai of Natan Bihel also retired early on, picking up damage on the start-line from Potty which broke his car’s left-rear suspension.

Race two gets underway at 14:30 CEST (13:30 BST).

Revised race result

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	70	Mat’o HOMOLA		Target Competition	Hyundai i30 N TCR	13	13 LAPS	1:55.062	1
2	9	Josh FILES		Target Competition	Hyundai i30 N TCR	13	0.444	1:55.204	4
3	12	Nelson PANCIATICI		M Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	13	1.394	1:54.764	3
4	62	Dušan BORKOVIĆ		Target Competition	Hyundai i30 N TCR	13	6.319	1:55.536	9
5	99	Dániel NAGY		M1RA Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	13	7.951	1:55.590	8
6	16	Gilles MAGNUS		Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	13	8.756	1:55.519	5
7	7	Aurélien COMTE		DG Sport Compétition	Peugeot 308 TCR	13	10.466	1:55.605	14
8	45	Gianni MORBIDELLI		WestCoast Racing	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	13	13.380	1:55.525	16
9	26	Jessica BÄCKMAN		Target Competition	Hyundai i30 N TCR	13	14.255	1:55.477	7
10	19	Andreas BÄCKMAN		Target Competition	Hyundai i30 N TCR	13	17.875	1:55.883	2
11	30	Luca FILIPPI		BRC Racing Team	Hyundai i30 N TCR	13	19.614	1:55.939	18
12	111	Teddy CLAIRET		Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	13	20.691	1:55.787	15
13	27	John FILIPPI		Vuković Motorsport	Renault Mégane RS TCR	13	25.634	1:56.806	12
14	112	Jimmy CLAIRET		Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	13	26.176	1:56.738	17
15	5	Alex MORGAN		Wolf-Power Racing	Renault Mégane RS TCR	13	26.630	1:56.593	23
16	17	Martin RYBA		Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	13	28.812	1:56.634	20
17	3	Davit KAJAIA		PCR Sport with Georgia	CUPRA TCR	13	31.009	1:56.813	22
18	8	Luca ENGSTLER		M1RA Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	13	31.410	1:56.507	37
19	44	Lilou WADOUX		JSB Compétition	Peugeot 308 TCR	13	31.525	1:57.083	27
20	331	Milovan VESNIĆ		ASK Vesnić	CUPRA TCR	13	32.756	1:57.147	24
21	324	Jáchym GALÁŠ		GT2 Motorsport	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	13	36.835	1:56.870	30
22	46	Olli KANGAS		WestCoast Racing	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	13	38.002	1:56.634	21
23	96	Abdulla Ali AL-KHELAIFI		QMMF Racing by PCR Sport	CUPRA TCR	13	39.523	1:56.376	26
24	10	Viktor DAVIDOVSKY		PSS Racing Team	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	13	40.040	1:56.537	25
25	377	Jakub WYSZOMIRSKY		ASK Vesnić	Honda Civic Type R FK2 TCR	13	41.317	1:57.310	29
26	81	Stéphane VENTAJA		Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	13	41.360	1:56.939	28
27	2	Stéphane LEMERET		Boutsen Ginion Racing	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	13	44.445	1:56.058	19
28	376	Petr ČíŽEK		Fullinrace Academy	CUPRA TCR	13	1:00.444	1:57.798	32
29	322	Carol WITTKE		Fullinrace Academy	CUPRA TCR	13	1:16.950	1:58.978	33
30	307	Maciej ŁASKIEWICZ		RTM Motorsport	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	13	1:18.924	1:58.508	35
31	374	Žarko KNEGO		Auto Klub Dubrovnik Racing	CUPRA TCR	11	+ 2 LAPS	1:59.853	36
DQ	24	Julien BRICHÉ		JSB Compétition	Peugeot 308 TCR	13	5.225	1:54.945	6
R	332	Rudi PEŠOVIĆ		GM Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	7	DNF	1:58.079	34
R	21	Marie BAUS-COPPENS		JSB Compétition	CUPRA TCR	7	DNF	1:57.777	31
R	88	Maxime POTTY		Team WRT	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	1	DNF	N/A	13
R	25	Natan BIHEL		M Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	1	DNF	N/A	11
R	55	Santiago URRUTIA		Team WRT	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	0	DNF	N/A	10