Flashback: Portugal has been good to Michelisz

2010. június 26. 17:57 | még nem szólt hozzá senki.  szerző: Viktor Adorján

Three years and four different venues, this is the summary of Norbert Michelisz's past in Portugal. The Hungarian driver has driven in Estoril, Porto, Algarve and Braga and took away something from every places. This year he returns to Algarve as an official WTCC driver.

Every driver, moreover every person has places in his heart that remains remarkable after leaving and heading to other areas of the world. Portugal could be a location like that for Norbert Michelisz as the young driver reached important milestones in his international career in various places in Portugal.

In our remark we'll take a look back to see why was Portugal so essential in Michelisz's journey to the top of touring car racing and review some races that have almost faded into history since the Hungarian talent has reached the World Touring Car Championship.

2008, Estoril: Michelisz is on pole for the first time

Only three qualifying session was needed for Norbert Michelisz to show his raw speed in the inaugural SEAT Leon EuroCup season in 2008. The single brand support series of the WTCC was a great step for the Hungarian driver who had then only a few races with the SEAT under his belt but following Gábor Wéber's victory in Pau, Michelisz took command and posted four consecutive pole positions over the course of the remaining part of the season.

Estoril was the first installment as Michelisz swept away the whole field. He did only two timed laps on the qualifying, the first one would have been enough for the second spot on the grid but the following one was a dominant performance and elevated Michelisz to the top of the grid. The Hungarian driver was faster than anybody by more than 0.4 seconds, his result was speaking for itself.

The races didn't work out the way he wanted as Michelisz got a puncture two laps before the checkered flag and had to retire from the lead. He said after the race that those were the "most wonderful laps of his life".

On Sunday he had to try to recover from the back of the grid and closed on the point scoring places but Oscar Nogués, later the champion of the series simply kicked him out of the circuit. In the end the weekend was quite bitter for Michelisz but scoring the first pole position was a remarkable achievement for the young talent.

2009, Porto: Earning another chance in the WTCC

Back in 2008 Michelisz was granted an entry for being the most successful driver in Monza but the 2009 season offered another chance for the Zengő Motorsport to place Michelisz into the WTCC. The guy from Hímesháza was a regular contender for the seat but the initial races didn't work out for him and he had to wait for his another ride in the WTCC car.

At the beginning only a few would have bet on Michelisz to get the chance in Portugal, especially after he slightly crashed his car on the streets of Porto while trying to qualify for the race. It was an unexpected and very rare mistake by him but it was enough to compromise the weekend as Michelisz could only start from 10th on the grid. It is worth to mention that he qualified with a time that he considered to be a warm up lap before his serious shot on the top spots.

This meant that the lead driver of the Zengő Motorsport could have only one aim, to survive the start and get into the top 8 to take advantage of the reverse grid on Sunday. The mission was accomplished, Michelisz quickly grabbed the 7th place after the start and didn't let it go until the end of the race.

On Sunday he was 2nd on the grid but not for too long, as he immediately overtook Andrea Larini's car that stalled on the grid. This enabled Michelisz to start his way to the victory of Race 2 while he was attacked by Tim Coronel and Diego Puyo.

The Hungarian driver successfully won the race but it wouldn't have been enough itself, team mate Andrea Larini's effort was necessary for Michelisz to get the WTCC chance. The Italian driver passed Saturday's winner Fredy Barth and pushed him out of the point scoring positions which meant that the Swiss driver couldn't score enough points to be more successful than Michelisz. Two weeks later he made his second appearance in the FIA World Touring Car Championship.

2009, Algarve: Winning from the back

The 2009 season was quite busy for Norbert Michelisz as he participated in the SEAT Leon EuroCup, the Hungarian Championship and the Spanish SEAT Leon Supercopa simultaneously beside occasionally popping up in the FIA WTCC and the FIA ETCC races.

Racing the Spanish Championship gave the opportunity for Michelisz to get to know the brand new Algarve Circuit that hosted a round of the series as a support race for the Le Mans Series. Michelisz quickly made friends with the new state of the art location and took pole position on Saturday in the highly competitive field.

He couldn't enjoy his lead for too long as he was kicked out in the first corner just after the start and slipped back in the pack where he couldn't avoid further racing accidents that meant that he was able to recover only until he took 6th at the end of the first race. The following one brought slight improvement as he finished 5th but next day he could take advantage of the reversed grid.

On Sunday everything worked out, Michelisz got a better start than pole sitter Saraiva and took the lead in lap 1. From that point there wasn't anybody who could stop him to win the race and move up to 2nd in the overall classification. Algarve proved to be a track that fits Michelisz, he only needed the right possibilities to exploit his potential.

2009, Braga: Michelisz wins ETCC race with a TDI

Following his championship title in the 2009 SEAT Leon EuroCup, SEAT Sport made a great gesture to Norbert Michelisz as the Hungarian driver was the first privateer racer to be given the opportunity to race the back to back world champion SEAT Leon TDI technology.

Michelisz was entered to the FIA ETCC as a prize for winning the title and with the TDI he had a great chance to shine in the field that featured several current or former WTCC drivers including James Thompson, Michel Nykjaer, Franz Engstler or Harry Vaulkhardt.

The races were hosted in Braga in varying weather conditions that made the life hard of the duo formed by Norbert Michelisz and his engineer, Arnau Niubó who worked with the rising driver for the first time.

It was a race that had a great importance for Michelisz but so many previously unanswered questions have popped up that made the picture confused. This included the very limited knowledge on the TDI car that has got a pretty different characteristics compared to other racecars, and the weather also disturbed the situation.

Despite this Michelisz took pole position with a brave decision to postpone the last timed lap until the very end of the session when the track was at its best and started the first wet race from 1st on the grid.

Race 1 was reserved for Michelisz as the Hungarian driver successfully fended off the attacks launched by Franz Engstler and won the wet race in Braga with a confident driving. This was a great debut for Michelisz with the TDI car but the weekend was not over then as he had to participate on a 2nd race starting from 8th on the grid.

Usually this is the harder task as starting from the midfield is generally a quite dangerous situation. This race also showed that the most important thing is the survival when somebody is driving with 10 cars around him. Despite his greatest efforts, Michelisz's car was hit at the start and the suspension got damaged that compromised his race but the wrong tyre choice was the factor that made him to lose the overall victory.

It was expected that wet tyres would be required for the race but the track quickly dried up and Michelisz couldn't be on the same pace as the leaders. As a result of this we finished third in the overall classification but he still could step onto the podium.

At that time most of the involved parties were still negotiating regarding the future, nobody knew what will happen in 2010 but it was in the air that Michelisz should get more runs with the latest SEAT Leon TDI. A bit more than half a year later he is returning to Portugal with an identical car as an official WTCC driver of the Zengő-Dension Team.

Hozzászólások