Penalties for Michelisz and Bennani

Norbert Michelisz and Mehdi Benanni both drop five places from their qualifying results for indiscretions in Friday qualifying.

Norbert Michelisz was handed a five place grid drop before he took part in Q2 for missing the weigh bridge during Q1, whilst Mehdi Bennani was deemed to have not slowed for a yellow flag and will also drop five places.

After Q2, that means Michelisz will start from seventh place on the grid for race one, after a stunning last minute lap got the Hungarian driver the second fastest time in the session.

Bennani had qualified 17th, but will now start 22nd behind the Proteam Motorsport BMW 320si of Nobuteru Taniguchi.

The WTCC has also allowed the four cars which failed to qualify into the race, as well as Philip Ma’s Honda Accord, though the latter was also penalised for a non-compliant safety suit.

The other three cars which hadn’t set times good enough for the grid in Q1 were the three Liqui-Moly Engstler Motorsport cars of Jo Merszei, Masaki Kano & Andrei Romanov. They will now start 23rd, 24th & 25th on the grid.

Kevin Chen was also found guilty of ignoring yellow flags, and the Taiwanese driver in his second race will be dropped five places as well, which will put him 26th on the grid behind the three Engstler cars which were allowed in to the race.