“Perfect day” puts Norbert Michelisz on course for WTCR title

Points leader Norbert Michelisz summed up his emphatic qualifying runs to double Sepang poles as “a perfect day”, with the Hungarian now in the prime seat for the 2019 World Touring Car Cup title.

Hyundai driver Michelisz dominated qualifying for the Malaysian season-finale on Friday, topping both grid-deciding sessions to secure himself two pole positions for Sunday’s all-decisive races.

Michelisz will lead the field away in both Race 1 and Race 3, and will start the intermediary, partially reversed-grid Race 2 from tenth – a consequence of topping the times in the Q2 segment of Qualifying 2.

“It was a perfect day,” the Hungarian reflected. “To be honest, we felt that we needed to improve the car after the free practice sessions; the classification was looking OK, but the feeling inside was not very good. We did small things on the set-up and it gave me a lot of confidence. I think the key was to build that confidence. I managed to do, especially in Q2 and Q3, two very good laps without any mistakes, and the same goes for my second run in the first qualifying.

“Two pole positions today… Huge thanks to the team. I receive incredible support on social media from Hungary, so thanks to all the fans as well. But I don’t want to get too excited. Today was perfect, but it’s till 75 points on the table so we can not take anything for granted. Of course I will be a bit happy today, but from tomorrow morning I will focus 100 % on the three races on Sunday.”

Thanks to scoring the maximum ten points on offer across the two WTCR qualifying sessions, Michelisz has now moved 15 points clear of main rival Esteban Guerrieri (Honda) in the title chase.

Guerrieri is set to start alongside Michelisz in the final race of the season on Sunday evening.