Photo: WTCR

“No hard feelings” from Norbert Michelisz on Mikel Azcona incident

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BRC Racing Team driver Norbert Michelisz says he harbours no hard feelings towards championship newcomer Mikel Azcona, even though the two drivers came together on lap 11 at Turn 1, which saw Michelisz drop down the order.

The two were battling for tenth place, with Michelisz’s Hyundai holding back Azcona’s PWR Racing Cupra on his WTCR debut.

The young Spaniard made a lunge at Turn 1 down the inside of the Hungarian’s i30 N TCR, and Michelisz was forced wide, while Azcona was able to continue on and cross the line in tenth despite damage to the front-right of his Cupra TCR.

Michelisz lost three places in total, one to BRC Racing team-mate Nicky Catsburg, and the other to Team Mulsanne’s Kevin Ceccon, but gained one back when Azcona was handed a five-second penalty by the race officials.

“It’s a better start to the season than last year for me,” said a pragmatic Michelisz to TouringCarTimes. “Mikel came and apologised; I understand he was ambitious, and when people do mistakes and they apologise, there’s no bad feelings on my side.

“It wasn’t for a race win, I could have finished P8, so I lost three places.”

The Hyundais have been vocal about their lack of straight-line speed, and all four Hyundais found themselves on the defensive during the race.

“Yann Ehrlacher (ahead) wanted to leave a gap to the car in front, but considering our straight-line performance, I could never be in a position to attack at one of the hard braking points, and this made it a bit difficult for me to back off and defend from the guys behind,” he explained.

“We’re a bit vulnerable in the second part of the straight, it was a tough race, but it’s these races you need to manage as a driver and I’m happy that I finished the race.”

Michelisz said the goal was to follow up on Sunday with some top ten finishes, after only being classified in 11th on Saturday.

“I expect it to be tricky as some drivers didn’t know the circuit, so tomorrow I expect the field to be even closer and it to be even faster, which will make it difficult for the guys between P8 to P20 to get into the top ten. Our target is to fight for the championship, so tomorrow we need to somehow manage to score points and fight in the top ten.”