Norbert Michelisz shocked by Citroën’s Q3 improvements

Despite setting the pace in Q2, Honda Racing’s Norbert Michelisz was not able to go beyond fourth in the final segment of qualifying. The Hungarian says he was already on the limit, and clearly his opponents were not.

“The others were able to improve and we weren’t, it’s as simple as that,” admitted Michelisz to TouringCarTimes. “There was no big mistake in Q3, I had arrived to the limit in the second segment. I expected that if I could repeat the time I clocked in Q2 I could finish third, but after I saw Yvan (Muller)’s lap time I knew it was not possible to fight for pole position.”

The Hungarian is at a loss to explain how Citroën’s Yvan Muller was able to gain eight tenths in Q3: “They improved so much and we struggle to understand how. It’s very difficult for me to explain how they made such a huge step, but if you take a look at last year’s lap times they made the same progress from Q1 to Q3, so they know what they are doing. For us, from the outside, it’s very difficult to imagine how you can do that.”

The Honda Racing driver praised the good team work behind the MAC3 thriller, which saw the Japanese cars clock the same time as the Citroëns over two laps: “MAC3 was exactly as it has to be, it was spectacular. I’m happy with the work we were able to do as a team. Even if we don’t have the fastest car it was good to show that as a team we are able to do a great performance. There’s a big fight in the manufacturers’ championship, so we need every single point. I’m pretty happy that we were able not to lose points compared to Citroën. Of course when you do exactly the same lap time you are left wondering what you could have done better, but I am sure they are thinking the same, so in the end we can be happy.”

As for the races, Michelisz is not sure how the weight is going to affect the French cars and if he can take advantage of the struggles in the second half of the race: “It’s very difficult to tell. I think the weight is affecting them more than it did in Paul Ricard, but overtaking here is more difficult and with the straight speed they have it’s going to be really hard, even with a faster car in the second part of the race. It will be quite a challenge. It’s very difficult to force them into mistakes because they are multiple World Champions, but like I said many times I believe we should fight whenever we have the possibility, so we can show that we can perform at a high level. We need to take risks if needed, for sure I will not sit in fourth, I will do my very best to get them.”

Michelisz was not surprised with Lada and Volvo’s pace, as the Slovakiaring layout seems to suit the Vesta and the S60: “I actually expected Lada to be strong. They were already fast in Paul Ricard. You could see the Volvos and the Ladas had very similar strengths in Paul Ricard, they are good in fast corners and have good top speeds. I think France was a better chance for us to be honest.”

When asked about what is going to happen once compensation weight comes into play, the Hungarian believes the season will be full of opportunities to beat Citroën from time to time, but the championship will be won again by the French manufacturer: “I think we are closer, but there will be race weekend when we will be a bit too far from Citroën. I expect a difficult weekend in Hungary, to be honest, because with an 80-kilos difference you can see that sometimes you are able to fight against them for pole position, and I’m also confident we will mount the challenge through the race.”

“As soon as we will have extra weight as well, we will struggle a lot, so I expect for this season more chances to be close to Citroën compared to last year, but you have to be realistic, and we will not win the World Championship this season, because they have done very good work. We need to show good team work and cherish every opportunity.”

Speaking about future updates on the Civic WTCC, Michelisz does not expect any new parts to arrive until mid season: “Updates will not come before Moscow, I think. We will have something for the second half of the season, we will test and see how the new parts are working. The balance is good, if we had no competition I would have said the car was very good. It looks like we are losing a bit in every sector, so we need to improve in every area to get even closer to Citroën.”

Being so close to Hungary, his home country, Michelisz has many fans in Slovakia. According to the Honda driver it does not add negative pressure, and actually gives him a boost as it pushes him to perform even better: “Having a lot of fans gives me an extra boost, every year I perform above average in Slovakia and Hungary. Of course it adds some pressure, but I have enough experience to cope with this and take advantage of it. It actually pushes me to the limit, so it is positive for a sportsman.”

Norbert Michelisz took two third places in his first outing as a Honda factory driver at Paul Ricard.