Photo: WTCR

Norbert Michelisz draws first blood with Race 1 pole

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Norbert Michelisz overcame the first hurdle in his pursuit of the World Touring Car Cup title with a commanding run to pole position in opening qualifying at the Sepang season-finale.

Michelisz powered to Race 1 pole thanks to a furious 2:13.748 lap halfway through the session, assisted by what he labelled “a perfect team effort” as his Hyundai team-mates dragged him along the straights, and was never truly challenged despite the traditional late flurry of last-gasp runs.

Michelisz eventually clinched pole by a hefty 0.380s margin; roughly the same distance that covered positions two to ten behind him. In doing so, the Hungarian extends his lead in the WTCR standings from nine to 14 points over Honda’s Esteban Guerrieri, who could only manage tenth in qualifying one.

It was a worse blow still for Lynk & Co Cyan Racing’s title ambitions, with its two championship contenders Yvan Muller and Thed Björk languishing down in 16th and, shockingly, 28th respectively.

Lynk & Co tried their best to mimic the strategies applied by main rivals Hyundai and Honda, the four drivers slipstreaming each other along Sepang’s long straights, but to little success on a torrid weekend so far for the Swedish/Chinese operation.

Cupra’s strong form continued, meanwhile, with Aurélien Panis the surprise performer of the session in second place for Comtoyou Racing. The Frenchman was backed up by practice pace-setter Mikel Azcona, who took fourth for PWR Racing, as the Cupra duo sandwiched third-placed Néstor Girolami in the top Honda Civic Type R TCR.

Honda’s run was initially compromised by a Full Course Yellow early on in the session, triggered when SLR Volkswagen driver Rob Huff hit a tyre stack.

Behind the top four, Frédéric Vervisch – who will exit WTCR at the end of the season – took fifth in the leading Audi RS 3 LMS, with Augusto Farfus, Nicky Catsburg, Gabriele Tarquini and Ma Qing Hua completing the top ten along with Guerrieri.

MotoGP regular Hafizh Syahrin – a wild card entry this weekend – ended up 29th in his first car racing qualifying showing, some 2.9s off the pace.

Qualifying 2, which will shape the grids for races two and three of the weekend, is scheduled in for 19:30 local time / 12:30 CET.