PCR Sport with Georgia’s Davit Kajaia felt disappointed after slipping back to seventh from his second row start in the opening TCR Europe contest at the Red Bull Ring.
The Georgian racer said he was “very proud” of his fourth position start after his best qualifying result in the series, but would eventually finish seventh after former team-mate Dušan Borković pipped him at the flag by just six-thousandths of a second.
Kajaia lamented a chaotic first corner of the race in which he felt he lost two positions to Nelson Panciatici and Dan Lloyd as they went wide on the exit of the Niki Lauda Curve, which he felt handed them an advantage they were not penalised for.
“It was a really, really tough battle but I’m a little bit disappointed because on the first lap, in the very first corner – I made a good start, I almost overtook [Nelson] Panciatici and I was inside in the first corner and him and [Dan] Lloyd overtook me by going out of the track,” Kajaia told TouringCars.Net.
“They didn’t respect track limits and then they didn’t give me back the positions.
“During the race it was really hard because I didn’t expect the Hyundai cars to be that fast.
“They are really, really fast and also on the straights. It was really difficult to keep my position, and I lost out at the end.”
After battling with and losing out to the M1RA Motorsport Hyundai of Luca Engstler, Kajaia then had to defend from Borkovic on the final tour, eventually being overtaken by just fractions at the finish line.
“I was right in the middle of the big battle, but also in some parts when they were battling they held me up and behind me [Dušan] Borković was catching me,” he said.
“On the very last corner he overtook me. I think the Hyundai had more straight-line speed and that’s why he was able to overtake me by just 0.006s.”