Norbert Michelisz disappointed with two tough races

Norbert Michelisz had two difficult races in Buriram, Thailand, with the Hungarian involved in the first-lap carnage in race 1 and receiving a drive through penalty in the second heat, resulting in two zeros in the championship.

“I am obviously disappointed,” admitted the Hungarian to TouringCarTimes. “Sometimes racing is like this, and looking back on it there is nothing I could have done differently because Hugo (Valente) just came across straight ahead of me, and I couldn’t have avoided him anyway.”

“Besides the drive through penalty in race 2, I also had problems with the engine, which was cutting the power. It must have been down to the accident, I don’t know if something was bent. I tried to change some settings but it only worked for the first lap or so, then I started losing power again.”

“When I realized I had no chance I let Tiago (Monteiro) through on the straight. I think it was the right decision, because with my problems there was no realistic chance of fighting for the podium, nevermind a win. On the other hand, I knew he could do it. Unfortunately shortly after that I got the message that we had a drive through penalty.”

“Like I said today, I am more interested in the outright result. Of course I do care about the Yokohama Trophy and I want to win the title, but taking risks to get a good outright position also means that I am more prone to accidents, just like today.”

“It will be a lot dependant on the amount of weight we have to carry. If we lose a few kilos, then we will be able to mount a serious challenge for Q3 and hopefully go from there.”