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Norbert Michelisz delighted as Honda take surprise pole in Germany

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Norbert Michelisz was very happy after securing his first pole position since Japan in 2015 at the Nürburgring, admitting it was a surprise that the Honda Civic had the pace at what should be one of their weaker circuits on the calendar.

Michelisz romped to pole position six-tenths clear of the Polestar Volvo of Nicky Catsburg, replicating his pace from Free Practice 1 on Thursday at the world-famous 25km circuit.

“I’m super-happy with the results today,” said Michelisz. “I had confidence from the first lap in the second practice yesterday. We knew that the car is great, and the balance was OK. We fine-tuned it a bit in FP2, and I was confident to get within the top three.

“After Monza, we thought this circuit was one on paper where we thought we couldn’t fight for pole, so it’s really satisfying to achieve a result like this here.”