Norbert Michelisz vows to keep fighting despite qualifying disaster in Qatar

Honda’s Norbert Michelisz isn’t writing off his championship chances yet, despite qualifying behind his championship rival Thed Björk for both of tonight’s races at Losail, after a brake issue deprived the Hungarian of what was an almost-certain pole.

The Hungarian had broken the lap record in Free Practice 2 on Thursday, a time which was still unbeaten during qualifying, with Honda team-mate Esteban Guerrieri’s pole position time of 2:00.893 in the top-five shootout almost a second from Michelisz’s FP2 time.

The 33-year-old will start both races from 11th on the grid, and will need to make his way past the Volvo of Thed Björk in at least one of the two races in order to stand any chance of winning the 2017 WTCC drivers’ title.

“Things were going really well,” said Michelisz, “But then in Q2 at Turn 7 I felt something was not right with the brakes, and I couldn’t push. The brake was sticking on and that was it.

“P11 is not where we wanted to be, but we’re still in it and we’ll keep fighting until we can’t win it anymore.”