Norbert Michelisz delights with dominant display at Mettet

Norbert Michelisz said he had a fun weekend at the Circuit Jules Tacheny, romping away to another pair of victories in the day’s two sprint races, helping co-driver Stéphane Lémeret to the drivers’ title.

Michelisz led all the way in his first race, building up a seven second lead before cruising in the final stages and allowing the Peugeot of Aurélien Comte to close in, while in the final race, he dominated after the restart following his first lap clash with Opel’s Pierre-Yves Corthals, winning by over ten seconds, again ahead of the Peugeot.

“It was fun,” said Michelisz to TouringCarTimes. “I really tried to do my best to have a good standing start in the first race, because I knew the car was working well and I had the pace to stay in front and maybe manage the tyres and the gap as well.

“I had my best start of the weekend just at the right moment, so because of the start and the performance of the car I was able to stay in front.

“After the first four or five laps I was trying to save the car for the second race, as here the important thing is to save the tyres for the second race, and still I was able to manage the gap, so I still had something in reserve.”

Michelisz’s main threat in both races came from Comte’s Peugeot 308 Racing Cup car, which showed impressive pace at the twisty Belgian circuit, which seemed to suit the car’s smaller capacity engine more so than Spa or Nürburgring, where the Peugeot last raced.

“I think Peugeot did a really impressive job,” said Michelisz. “In Friday testing they were second fastest, and you could see in the races Comte was driving really well and the car was performing really great.”