Norbert Michelisz on top in wet first practice session at Motegi
Honda’s Norbert Michelisz led the way in an unusual late-afternoon first practice session at Motegi, with the weekend’s schedule heavily compressed due to the late arrival of the cars and equipment from China late on Friday night.
The session went from damp to very wet during the 45 minutes, with Sébastien Loeb Racing’s John Filippi the early pace-setter, until Michelisz led the way through much of the session in the slippery conditions.
On the pace with his Honda team-mate was Japanese driver Ryo Michigami despite taking to the track late following an alternator issue. Michigami made his WTCC debut at the circuit last year and is the driver most familiar with the circuit in the field, with Michigami then taking over at the top of the time sheets with just under ten minutes to go.
As the session drew to a close, Volvo’s Nicky Catsburg then went quicker still in his Polestar Cyan Racing Volvo S60, before Michelisz jumped back on top with a time of 2:08.363, three-tenths faster than the Dutchman.
Catsburg was unable to improve as he found traffic on his final lap when he caught Campos Racing’s Kris Richard, making his WTCC debut this weekend, and had to settle for second, with Michigami third.
Rob Huff was best of the Citroën and the independents, placing his Münnich Motorsport Citroën in fourth, just over half a second from Michelisz, with Esteban Guerrieri fifth on his debut with Honda.
Yann Ehrlacher was the best-placed of the RC Motorsport Lada drivers in sixth, with championship leader Thed Björk in ninth, 1.8 seconds off the pace.
“The track was quite tricky,” said Michelisz. “The grip was quite low at the beginning, but I just found my confidence slowly. The most important thing with a wet FP1 is to find the lines and the braking points.
“After the bad news this morning, there was certainly a bit of anger or frustration, which may have helped me to be even faster.”
The next session is Free Practice 2, which takes place at 08:00 JST on Sunday morning, with qualifying, MAC3 and both races all taking place on the same day.
