Norbert Michelisz

When things don’t go to plan: Norbert Michelisz and the MOL Group Zengő Motorsport team leave Thailand disappointed and almost with empty hands after a troublesome race day at Chang International Circuit.

Starting from P10 in the first race, Norbert got collected from another car and sustained heavy damage which forced him to retire on the spot after lap one.

“I was unlucky in the first race after an average start”, Norbert says. “I was already up to P9 or P8 when some cars in front of me touched and another car went sideways. I was directly behind it and couldn’t avoid the accident. That was a shame because it was a typical situation of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. There was not much I could do about it.”

From then on it was a race against time in the pit lane as the MOL Group Zengő Motorsport crew got to work on the No. 5 Honda Civic WTCC during repair time. However, the damage proved to be huge.

“The guys worked pretty hard”, Norbert says. “But we later got a penalty because we had used too much time for the repairs. With that the chance for a good result was gone.”

Norbert was handed a drive-through penalty and dropped from second to 13th. He finished the second race without taking further World Championship points. Therefore, he dropped from 5th to 7th in the overall standings. On a good note, however, Norbert defended his lead in the Yokohama Drivers’ Trophy.

“Of course, we are disappointed”, he says after the WTCC Race of Thailand. “We didn’t get the results we had expected. But I’m in motor sports for ten years now and there are ups and downs. Now, we look forward to Qatar.”

Results Race 1 (Top 5)
01. José María López (Citroën) – 16 laps
02. Sébastien Loeb (Citroën) +1.380s
03. Qing-Hua Ma (Citroën) +6.376s
04. Mehdi Bennani (Citroën) +7.202s
05. Gabriele Tarquini (Honda) +14.500s
...
DNF Norbert Michelisz (Honda)

Results Race 2 (Top 5)
01. Sébastien Loeb (Citroën)  - 10 laps
02. Qing-Hua Ma (Citroën) +5.722s
03. José María López (Citroën) +10.534s
04. Tom Chilton (RML Chevrolet) +11.753s
05. Gabriele Tarquini (Honda) +12.014
...
12. Norbert Michelisz (Honda) +33.000s

Source: zengomotorsport