Photo: TCR World Tour

Norbert Michelisz: “We still can fight back”

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BRC Squadra Corse N driver Norbert Michelisz had a difficult FIA TCR World Tour weekend at Vila Real, with the Hyundai drivers lacking pace compared to the Lynk & Co drivers. But the Hungarian believes that the fight isn’t over.

“The weekend was not perfect, to be honest, we were lacking some pace,” Michelisz told TouringCarTimes.

“The strange thing was that the car didn’t feel bad. From the inside, there was commitment, the car with new tyres felt good and they you jump out of the car and see a gap of this magnitude, which is not nice.”

An issue for Michelisz was the compensation weight in his Elantra N TCR, carrying the maximum of 40 kilos this weekend.

“The weight wasn’t helping, with this heat, going uphill with 40 kilos is costing us a lot of lap times. But we know from the past how to improve the car, we cannot do it with this weight,” said Michelisz.

“Still, I’m proud of us because we could improve the car when it was needed. It probably wasn’t the most competitive weekend and I felt sorry for Race 2, I felt good, I was attacking but, in the end, we had the problem with the driveshaft, I had to slow down and we lost some points.”

Michelisz remains philosophical about his chances for the remainder of the season.

“But well, we could have it worse, I have been racing a long time and had ups and downs and I know I can take also some positives from this weekend,” said Michelisz.

The Hungarian is sixth in the standings, 102 points behind Cyan Racing driver Yann Ehrlacher and believes there is an opportunity to turn around the situation.

“I can’t wait for the second half of the season to start, but I also had a good weekend in Monza,” Michelisz said.

“In the end, I enjoy racing so much and, some times, you have difficult racing weekends like this and, with age, I started to understand this comes for a reason and it shapes you as a driver.

“You always hope you can improve the situation, if not, there is no sense to participate. If luck comes our way, we can join the fight, anything can happen. I remember in 2019 I was behind and I still recovered and won the championship, so you have to believe.”