Borkovic could leave Proteam over parts dispute

The Serbian announced he would not be racing just four hours before the event was due to start following a dispute over the specification of the team's Honda Civic WTCC and support for him in the car.

The driver's management team released a statement citing ongoing problems with the 6ft9 driver's seating position, which was still causing numbness in his legs, but primarily there was a concern over the brakes and dampers on the car, which were "not race ready", and that the #98 Honda Civic was "not up to speed with other TC1 cars and other Hondas."

"You could see that I was fighting hard and that I drove on the very limit in free practice and qualifying," said Borkovic.

"Brakes and dampers especially didn't seem ready for this race. And when you add my sitting position to this it is not a good combination especially for this track.

"Also, it may have been a wrong decision to compete in Morocco so soon after my father's death. I wanted to continue for him but I am not 100 per cent focused and it is really hard for me to deal with these ridiculous issues at this moment.

"The non-functional car in this state was not safe for me to drive, I didn't want to cause problems for myself or other drivers," he added.

Proteam disputes claims

Long-standing independent squad Proteam Racing however has disputed the driver's accusations that the car is not of the same specification as the other Hondas of Tiago Monteiro, Gabriele Tarquini and Norbert Michelisz that were taking part that weekend.

"The car is in the 2015 configuration just like the other Civics", said team principal Valmiro Presenzini. "Parts such as the brakes require homologation from the FIA, and the 2014 spec brakes are not allowed anymore.

"The car passed the FIA technical scrutineering checks, confirming that the parts were up to date."

Presenzini says he's not happy with how things played out at the weekend, saying his tried it utmost to convince Borkovic to race.

"We tried to do as much as we could to get him in the car for the races, but Dusan eventually refused to do so. It was a shock to us, as we were convinced we would have been competitive enough to score points and generally battle it out on track, but that didn't happen unfortunately.

"I am convinced that there are different issues, but I will not discuss in public about these things."

Borkovic's management has stated that a decision on the rest of the season is yet to be made.

Neil Hudson / TouringCarTimes