75,000 pack in to see Michelisz at the Hungaroring

A massive home crowd for Zengö Motorsport driver Norbert Michelisz arrived at the Hungaroring this weekend, with the 26-year-old delivering an independent win and podium for his home fans.

Official estimates are that the attendance figure was 75,000 over the weekend for Rounds 7 & 8 of the FIA World Touring Car Championship; an event which was only confirmed in early April as a stand-in for the cancelled round due to be held in Marrakech.

The crowd were all there for one driver, with “Norbi” regularly chanted from the packed sun-drenched (and briefly rain-hit) grandstands.

Any time the young Hungarian appeared from his pit garage, the crowd would roar out in support of last year’s WTCC rookie champion, whom had finished ninth in the championship in his first season with the SEAT León TDI.

Now with Augusto Farfus’s old BMW 320, outfitted with the latest 1.6 litre turbocharged engine from BMW Motorsport, Michelisz finds himself seventh in the championship after a second place finish in Hungary, despite having to miss the opening weekend in Curitiba, Brazil.

In race one with a great start from sixth, helped slightly with the kerfuffle in the first corner which saw Tom Coronel, Javier Villa and Yvan Muller dropped down the order, the bright orange and black BMW 320 TC emerged in second place behind two-times BTCC Champion Alain Menu’s Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T.

The BMW looked like it was going to challenge for the lead after a few laps, reeling in the Chevrolet to chase it across the line, but faded later in the race and Michelisz settled for second place, his first podium of the season.

“I was expecting (Menu) to be much slower in the second part of the race, but that didn’t happen,” said Michelisz after the race.

“I think he took good care of his front tyres, so after the seventh or right lap I realised that there was no chance to win, so I was just keeping off and waiting for a mistake from Alain.”

When asked if he could hear the cheers of the crowd as he closed in on Menu for the lead, Michelisz responded:

“Unfortunately I couldn’t hear them (the crowd), but I looked many times on my lap and saw everyone standing up and waving their flags and it was just incredible.”

In the second race, things didn’t go as well. Locking up on the grass going in to the first corner, Michelisz plunged into the unsuspecting rival BMW of Kristian Poulsen, after the Dane had made a magnificent start from third on the grid to get around Menu’s Chevrolet and Mehdi Bennani’s BMW.

“I was not expecting Mehdi to brake early like this, so I wanted to avoid him,” said Michelisz

“I then went two wheels on the grass and I couldn’t stop the car so I was a passenger. I’m really sorry for him and Kristian (Poulsen) because I didn’t want to ruin his race, we’re good friends and I’m really sorry.”

Poulsen was out on the spot, Bennani suffered damage to the rear and had to pit for repairs, and both sides of Michelisz’s BMW were severely crumpled. The BMW struggled back to the pits but it looked like his day was done, until a heavy downpour turned the circuit from totally dry into monsoon conditions in just half a lap. With the race red flagged, the Zengö Motorsport team got to work on trying to get the BMW ready for the restart.

When the race restarted at 14:05 CET, the BMW headed down the pitlane to join the field one lap down to the rapturous applause of the crowd. Any hope of a podium repeat was gone, but some vital independents’ championship points could be possible.

Michelisz finished the race in 15th and last overall one lap down, and set the fastest lap on the penultimate lap, three seconds faster than anyone else achieved to pick up one point in the independents’ trophy.

A token punishment was to follow for the error at the start, with a drive-through penalty retrospectively added to his time, which made no difference to his finishing position.

Norbert Michelisz is now third in the independents’ championship, five points behind Kristian Poulsen and Javier Villa who are tied for first place.

After a triumphant event, with traffic jams fighting to get into the circuit to make the start of the race and a record crowd, there were rumours in the paddock that the event is certain to return on next year’s calendar.