Photo: WTCR

Norbert Michelisz scores his first win of the year at the Nürburgring

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Norbert Michelisz has claimed his first win of the 2019 season at the Nürburgring, making his move at the start to take the lead ahead of the Honda of Esteban Guerrieri, while the battle raged on for the final podium spot, eventually going to Guerrieri’s team-mate Néstor Girolami.

At the start, Michelisz launched into the lead in the BRC Racing Team Hyundai i30 N TCR, while Guerrieri dropped to second with Girolami briefly holding onto third, before the Argentinian was soon passed by the Comtoyou Racing Audi of Frédéric Vervisch.

At the Turn 1 exit, contact between Yvan Muller’s Lynk & Co and one of the Volkswagens saw Muller become the first retirement of the race, while his Cyan Racing team-mate Thed Björk found himself dropping down the order in the melee.

Gabriele Tarquini meanwhile had blasted from tenth to fifth in his Hyundai, with Rob Huff up to sixth in his Sébastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen.

At the start of lap two, WRT Audi driver Gordon Shedden and the PWR Racing Cupra of Daniel Haglöf became the next retirements from the race, making contact on the Grand Prix section – while Tarquini would soon slow out of fifth with a steering problem, promoting Huff to fifth.

At the end of lap two, the battle of the race was between Vervisch and Girolami, with Girolami making a run on the Belgian at the Döttinger Höhe straight, but as the two drivers tapped wheels, this gave a perfect draft to the Volkswagen of Rob Huff, who blasted past the pair of them into third, while Girolami was able to complete the pass on Vervisch.

A lap later, and the battle at Döttinger Höhe was on again, with Huff now defending against Girolami, but the Argentinian was able to make the move stick and grabbed third at the finish.

Michelisz won the race by 1.8 seconds ahead of Guerrieri, and in doing so leaps to second in the drivers’ championship, 28 points adrift of Guerrieri.

Yann Ehrlacher ended up as the best-placed of the Lynk & Cos in sixth, with the top Cupra that of Tom Coronel down in 13th in the Comtoyou Racing entry.

The next race is Race 2, which takes place at 11:00 CEST on Saturday morning.