Dusan Borkovic slams “totally unfair” penalty after qualifying woes
Target Competition’s Dusan Borkovic has labelled his three-place grid penalty carried over from the Budapest round as “totally unfair” after a poor qualifying for this afternoon’s opening TCR Europe series race at Assen.
Borkovic was penalised after making contact with Josh Files’ KCMG Honda Civic Type R FK8 in Race 2 in Hungary, which forced the Serbian out but left Files unaffected en route to third place.
“The penalty was totally unfair, no-one asked me to share the video from my car, they just gave me the penalty immediately,” Borkovic told TouringCarTimes.
“And I stopped, I crashed my car and he didn’t lose any positions and finishes P3. I never heard this anywhere in the world. It’s a disaster to have this penalty this weekend.”
Borkovic was one of the quickest drivers in Friday’s practice sessions but remains concerned over the lack of straight-line speed from his Hyundai in race trim.
“We are missing maybe eight-tenths of a second compared to the top guys so the pace is not really there for us. For sure, overtaking is going to be difficult in the races so we’ll see what I can do.
“It will be hard to move up the order for a good result this weekend, it’s a disaster.”
Borkovic said on Friday that he needed to leave the Dutch circuit ahead of main title rival, PCR Sport’s Mikel Azcona, if he is to stand any chance of claiming the championship.
But after losing two of his fastest lap-times in qualifying due to exceeding the track limits, combined with his grid penalty, the Serbian is downbeat on his chances in the races.
“I had some warnings from the stewards about not exceeding track limits, so I had to be very careful [on my laps],” Borkovic said.
“Then at turn 8, there is the tyre stack and I didn’t touch any tyres. They said I went outside the limits but there is some gravel there and I couldn’t gain any time, I could only lose the time.
“I don’t know what I’m going to fight for in the next few races because this is now ridiculous.”
