Rene Kircher praises team following maiden racing victory

Rene Kircher won the second TCR Eastern Europe race of the weekend at the Hungaroring, his maiden car racing victory, and praised Mertel Motorsport.

After track limit penalties for Adam Kout and Davit Kajaia, who originally finished first and second, the German racer came out on top.

“My start was, again, phenomenal, I directly passed two guys into turn one, then the three guys in front of me were fighting and I was just waiting for the opportunity to overtake them,” said Kircher to TouringCarTimes.

“I overtook Steibel on the second lap, we had a nice race. This is my first victory in car racing so I am very happy. The plan for the race was to be fast in the second half, I am always very good with the tyres. We had a great car for the race, perfect job by the team.”

Kajaia was fighting with the leaders from the start, adjusting his approach according to what was happening around him, before being hit with a two-second penalty for exceeding track limits.

“I managed to start the race ideally, heating up the tyres really well. During the race, I received a message that Kout had a penalty and I calmed down tried to manage the tyre wear. Then later on, I tried to push and create a gap,” said Kajaia.

“Trying to pass two cars into turn six was a risky move, but without risk in motorsport, it’s not motorsport.”

Mat’o Homola was struggling with a part of bodywork being in contact with the wheel of his Hyundai Elantra N TCR while fighting for the final podium finish.

“First of all I had a bad start, so there is something I need to look into, since it’s the second race with this problem, so there might be an issue with the clutch and that affected the whole race,” said the Slovakian racer.

“I had two or three contacts with Ghermandi, that were a little bit aggressive. There was a side panel that was touching the wheel so I couldn’t attack and I was really worried that the tyre would explode, because there was a lot of smoke. But fortunately it didn’t and I could continue without any major issues.

“The car was not perfect, I had a bent suspension, the geometry was different, but at least I could get third place. That is not perfect, but considering circumstances it was the best possible result. It’s good points, because if the tyre exploded in Race 2 I wouldn’t have finished.”