Photo: Castrol Honda WTC

Norbert Michelisz takes season’s best result in Argentina

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Zengõ Motorsport driver Norbert Michelisz scored his best result of the 2014 FIA World Touring Car Championship, after finishing in second place in the first race of the day at Termas de Río Hondo, passing the Citroën C-Elysées of Yvan Muller and Sébastien Loeb at the start, and holding them off for a fine second place.

The 29-year-old therefore scored his second podium of the season, his last, a third place finish, coming at the sodden race held at the Slovakiaring in early May.

“I am a happy man, I’m really happy with this result,” said Michelisz. “I made the positions up at the start and was comfortable all race in second position. Only in the last laps did Muller come back at me but the gap was big enough for me to take second place as my best result so far this season and gain more championship points.”

The two works cars of Tiago Monteiro and Gabriele Tarquini enjoyed a strong points weekend as well. Tiago Monteiro finished fifth in both races, extending his lead over his team-mate for fourth in the drivers’ title, while Gabriele Tarquini lost ground at the start in race one and finished behind Rob Huff’s Lada, but finished just off the podium in fourth in race two, only being shuffled down later in the race when he was passed by the Citroëns of José María López and Yvan Muller.

“I made a good start in race two,” said Tarquini. “Then I had a small battle with Mehdi (Bennani) and then Tiago to hold second for some time. The car was OK, we have improved a lot but the way Lopez and Muller passed me for second and third surprised me. We need to work more in the next weeks before the next race.”

Team Principal Alessandro Mariani added:
“After the Valencia test we found new ways to improve the competitiveness of the car and this has been evident during this event. However, as the Team Principal, I am frustrated at not achieving better final results, but we learned a lot using the latest evolutions in racing conditions and that is encouraging for the future.”