Norbert Michelisz scores key points for Lémeret’s championship charge

A victory and a podium in the first two races of the TCR Benelux series at Zandvoort for Norbert Michelisz means the Hungarian has scored important points for co-driver Stéphane Lémeret in the drivers’ championship, who now leads the part-time entry of Tiago Monteiro by 62 points.

Michelisz dominated Race 1 in the Boutsen Ginion Racing Honda Civic, launching into the lead around the outside into Turn 1 from fourth on the grid, and then pulled out a gap over the chasing Volkswagens of first Vincent Radermecker and later Amaury Richard.

“I was not expecting to be first before the first corner, as we weren’t able to do a practice start in free practice with the problems we had, and obviously we couldn’t do any during the qualifying race,” said Michelisz to TouringCarTimes.

“Everything worked well at the start. I tried to open a gap and save the tyres for the second race as you need to do good tyre management, but I have to say I didn’t do that. I think in the first 4-5 laps I’d really forced the tyres and took too much out of them,” he said.

In the second race, the Hungarian was forced to defend throughout from Richard’s Volkswagen Golf, with the two coming together on lap seven which saw Richard’s Delahaye Racing Golf GTI in the gravel, and Michelisz dropped to third.

“My main target was to not do any mistakes, as then it’s impossible to overtake,” explained Michelisz. “Sometimes (Richard) tried around the outside, he did it once at the first corner, and once before we had the collision at Turn 9, but he was always on the outside and I knew which corners to manage.

“I don’t want to say he’s to blame, but coming out of Turn 8 the normal line is 20 degrees to the right and I realised he was on the outside and he was trying to keep me on the inside, but I was afraid of going on the dirt so I kept some margin on the inside. In my opinion he had five or six metres on his right side and the ideal line was on his right; I wouldn’t say I didn’t do anything to avoid the incident, but I just wanted to stick to my line.”

The co-drivers take over for Races 3 and 4, with Lémeret starting the first race tomorrow from ninth on the grid in the Honda Civic TCR.