Two bad starts cost Norbert Michelisz valuable points

Norbert Michelisz lost a chance to be on the podium in the main race when he suffered from a puncture, and was even passed by Thed Bjork, who was later disqualified.

Although the Polestar Cyan Racing driver gave him a minor push, the Hungarian says it was not Bjork’s fault: “To be honest I don’t remember being pushed, because at the same time I was trying to figure out what was happening with the car. I felt a big vibration and then a couple of seconds later, when I went on the throttle, the tyre was completely destroyed, although I had tried to be a bit more careful when I felt the problem.”

The Honda driver is convinced he could have scored more points, but a couple of bad starts hampered his chances: “I surely could have scored more points. I felt confident in the car and tried to look for opportunities, which came, but after the starts my races were done. Standing starts are normally one of my strongest points, but I was not able to do a good start, so we have to investigate that problem. After falling back down the order at the first corner it was all about scoring points.”

Despite his issues, Michelisz is focused on Honda’s progress, and is happy the Japanese manufacturer leads both championships after Slovakia: “For me it is important that Tiago showed that even not qualifying on the front row he could do a good job, I’m really happy he is leading the championship and for us leading the manufacturers’ championship. We were expecting to be strong before the season, but we did not expect to be leading the championship after two races.

“Of course you have to consider our car is lighter, but still we had a light car a lot of times in the past and we couldn’t perform this well. I’m confident that we will have similar races for the rest of the season, but I am also sure we will have the weekends where we struggle and we will have to limit the damages there.”

With both the Hungarian and team-mate Rob Huff suffering from punctures, Michelisz is not worried about tyre wear, even when the compensation weight comes into play: “The puncture was probably down to a contact, but we will have to check it. I’m not concerned with the use of our tyres with the extra weight, we had that before and it was never a problem. You can balance the weight even with the ballast, so it’s not a problem. We did not have issues in winter testing, although there were colder temperatures. I’ve read that Citroën are worried and maybe they have more information, and if that is the case it will be a problem for all of us, not just Honda.”

Being the 2015 WTCC Trophy champion, Michelisz says it is a great category in which to grow within the World Touring Car Championship to get ready for a full factory drive: “I think the WTCC Trophy is a great school, I competed in it for five years and it is very tough. The championship was always very open last year, or even when I won against Pepe Oriola, so it teaches you how to score consistently and compete at the front. All this knowledge helps you when you are a factory driver, so it is a nice way to give drivers the tools to fight for an overall championship.”

Michelisz is third in the championship, 25 points shy of Honda team-mate Tiago Monteiro.