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Norbert Michelisz: “We are missing a lot of pace”

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Reigning FIA TCR World Tour champion Norbert Michelisz has had a nightmare start to the FIA TCR World Tour home race of Hyundai at Inje Speedium in South Korea, finishing 14th in qualifying.

“It has not been a very easy weekend if I have to be honest,” said Michelisz.

The BRC Hyundai team introduced a new homologation of the Elantra for this weekend, named the Elantra N EV TCR, which features a larger turbo charger and increased power level.

“Somehow, we are missing a lot of pace. Not sure where it is coming from,” said Michelisz.

“Also in the dry, I didn’t feel competitive. I expected something like this today. You always hope for a miracle, but this is more or less the reality for us.”

While team-mate Néstor Girolami also was eliminated after the Q1 session, Mikel Azcona made it through to Q2 with a lap time which was 1.4 seconds faster than Michelisz.

Azcona then gambled for a mixed dry and wet tyre combination in Q2 and could only manage tenth place.

Michelisz has dropped further behind in the standings as the best placed Hyundai driver and is trailing points leader Yann Ehrlacher, who will start third in Race 1, by 106 points in fifth place.