Norbert Michelisz

  • Results in WTCC/WTCR

    268 Races
    15 Victories
    55 Podiums
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Norbert Michelisz emerged as the fastest Honda driver in qualifying. The Hungarian claimed sixth and narrowly missed out on the final shootout.

In an interview with TouringCarTimes, the Honda driver admitted he was convinced he could pull off a strong performance in today:"I was confident ahead of qualifying, because I enjoy the circuit and we prepared the car to make sure that I could be confident in the car, and we succeeded. After Free Practice 2 I felt I could match my stablemates or even be quicker. Today it was a lucky day for us, because we are the ones ahead, but I generally believe it is positive to have this kind of competition inside the Honda family, because it helps pushing the best out of the drivers and the cars."

According to the Hungarian, though, things will be different tomorrow:"I expect difficult races, and the gap is huge to the front of the field. Not only Citroën, but also Chevrolet seem to have more pace than we do. Unfortunately, this time it's not only the French manufacturer to have the edge over us, so I am much less confident for the races than I was for qualifying, also because the performance over a single lap is a strength of mine. With a slower car it is very difficult to hold off the opponents, especially on a track such as Suzuka."

When asked about the chance of rain, Michelisz said it would not radically change the level of the competition:"I would prefer it to rain, but we also have to say that even if it does the gap will not disappear. We have seen in past races that our competitors are capable of being up to 2 seconds a lap quicker than us even in the wet, so the rain will not solve our problems."

Source: Touringcartimes