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Mat’o Homola calls for BoP change due to ‘crippled’ Hyundai i30

Slovak racer Mat’o Homola was frustrated with his weekend on home soil in the TCR Europe series at the Slovakiaring, calling for changes to the Balance of Performance for the Hyundai i30.

Homola had displayed good pace in practice, managing two top ten times with eighth and seventh fastest in the two sessions respectively.

However, in a mixed weather qualifying session Homola’s car developed an oil leak from the transmission after he had made it through to Q2, leaving the Janík Motorsport driver unable to do any better than 12th on the grid for both races.

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Although the team fixed the issue immediately post-qualifying, on the way to the race one grid another oil leak occurred as well as problems with the power steering.

That meant Homola couldn’t take the start and his Saturday was effectively over.

“We had a chance to test a qualifying set up in the first session, and in the second practice I just had good fun on the wet Slovakian track.

“Qualifying was a nightmare. Not only the oil leak, but I also started to feel problems with my power steering.”

Jaro Krajci, Homola’s race engineer, explained that due to the issue he couldn’t start the race.

“I couldn’t allow him to start to the race,” said Krajci. “The oil leak was a minor fault – the big problem was the steering.

“It was possibly dangerous not only to Mato but to the other drivers as well.”

Race two on Sunday saw Homola start from 12th and he was up to eighth on the first lap. However, the 26-year-old then got caught up battling in the pack and ultimately took 12th at the chequered flag.

As a result, Homola has called for changes to the Balance of Performance for the Hyundai i30, which he feels is falling behind now compared to newer TCR models appearing.

“What started as a nice and positive weekend in the free practice sessions, continued as a nightmare on the second day, as I finished with 12th place,” added Homola.

“I tried and fought hard. I was able to gain some advantage in the technical parts but on the fast bits? That was a different game. Sometimes I felt like I was parking.

“I was losing about 0.8 seconds every lap in the first sector. And you cannot do anything about that.

“I have to say, I had a lot of nice fights, but it was more for fun – I was no match for the ‘fast’ cars here.

“I hope that something will change on the BoP. The car is ‘crippled’ for almost two years now and the competition is speeding up. The i30 has a really tough life now.”

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