2010. September 2. 03:49 | no comments yet.  author: Viktor Adorján

One of the hardest races of the season is coming this weekend in Germany where Norbert Michelisz will get back into his SEAT Leon TDI for the first time since the disappointing Czech round of the championship. The Hungarian driver eyes to get back into the top 10 of the point table.

Autumn comes to Europe and the 2010 FIA World Touring Car Championship is about to resume this weekend in Germany. Oschersleben will host the next round of the season as it has always done it since the WTCC was launched back in 2005.

Germany has got a fixed presence in the championship as the country's race is an established point of the season and plenty of national interest keep up the importance of the world championship in Europe's biggest population.

Seeing their efforts, it is clear that the Germans are preparing for this weekend's race as the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben printed 80.000 copies of stamps to promote the race to be held on the 5th of September. The event was officially launched at a unique event in Magdeburg on the 29th of August in the Allee Center which attracts approximately 35.000 visitors each Saturdays.

The clash of statistics

Based on the history of the WTCC in Germany, it is not harsh to state that we should expect BMW to be the most competitive force of the weekend as the German marque has won 9 out of the 10 races held over the past 5 years. The only exception was Race 1 back in 2007 when Yvan Muller could claim the victory with a SEAT. This means that Chevrolet have never won in Germany yet.

The previous paragraph is not something that indicates much positive for Zengő-Dension Team's Norbert Michelisz but the Hungarian driver has always been fast as well, although not in the FIA WTCC but in the SEAT Leon EuroCup.

"I have always been competitive so far when I raced there but we must see that now this is a different championship. It is different to be competitive in the EuroCup and in the WTCC. This is probably the most important lesson for me this year," Norbert Michelisz stated.

Michelisz topped both qualifying sessions in the SEAT Leon EuroCup and successfully won Race 1 last year which brought one of the biggest success for Zengő Motorsport as the team took a 1-2 finish in Oschersleben. Albeit the EuroCup is still a task, the focus is now on the WTCC in which Michelisz targets Gabriele Tarquini's performance and will be trying to get as close as possible.

"We will be able to pick up the pace against the independent BMWs, we can be even faster than them. There are two works BMWs, if they took the first two places we still have 8 places that are up for grabs," explained Michelisz.

"As I know the track, it would be a huge success for me to be the fastest SEAT driver behind Tarquini and I think it would be enough easily to take a place in the top 8."

This time risks and luck are needed

Not only the results (or the lack of) were reasons to be sad in Brno but the post-race happenings also brought great bitterness for the Zengő-Dension Team as the outfit was fined for €1000 for passing Colin Turkington under Safety Car conditions and more importantly Norbert Michelisz was hit by a 10 place grid penalty for being involved in the accident among him, Turkington and championship leader Yvan Muller.

This severe penalty is going to heavily compromise the race in Oschersleben as Michelisz will need to gain as many positions as possible on Race 1 at a circuit which offers only a few if not only one opportunity for overtaking. The Hungarian driver says he will attack to recover.

"Practically, if you don't take risks, you have no chance to score points," Michelisz made it clear.

"For me there is the Rookie Challenge in which a driver would be able to save points with a conservative strategy but for me the primary direction is the overall standings, to get back into the top 10," he said.

The plan seems to be simple but it doesn't mean that it is easy to make it work. The 10 place grid penalty means that Michelisz is likely to start from the midfield and he would need to get into the top 8 in order to take advantage of the reversed grid system for Race 2.

It is clear that the circumstances will need to assist the Hungarian driver but it is not impossible to make it happen. A double points finish is definitely a realistic aim and Michelisz says he plans to achieve at least this goal over the weekend.

"I would like to conclude a weekend on which I can get into the top 6 at least once. The key to do this is to move up to the 10th-12th places and with some luck I would be able to take 6th-8th on Race 2. Obviously with a bit more luck a top 8 finish on Race 1 would be possible but a really successful qualifying would be needed for that. Anything can happen. I will take more risks than normally."

Chevrolet is the fastest, Vaulkhard is out

Based on the laptime analysis of the past three events, the Chevrolet Cruze LT emerged as the fastest racecar of the field by a tenth ahead the SEAT Leon TDI but this is not taking any effect on the success ballasts allocated for the 2010 Race of Germany.

The Cruze, the Leon and the latest BMW 320si will also carry the maximum 40 kg of compensation weight as the old 320si will have 10 kilos and the old 320si with sequential gearbox plus the Chevrolet Lacetti will carry 20 kg less than they used to.

A change will take effect in the field as bamboo engineering's Harry Vaulkhard is forced to suspend his 2010 season for financial problems. The British driver is replaced by Yukinori Taniguchi for the next three rounds.

Back in the hunt

Following the 5 weeks break Norbert Michelisz will be back in the field of the FIA WTCC to give a final push for the end of the European leg of the championship this weekend in Germany and two weeks later in Spain. Michelisz said he recharged his batteries especially on the mental side but kept up his physical fitness as well.

Thanks to a special offer by the organizers of the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo, racing didn't miss from Michelisz's life over the long, 5 weeks long break as the Hungarian driver participated in the world's fastest one make series at the Hungaroring and successfully coped with the challenge of equaling the best result achieved by VIP guest drivers so far.

But now it is time to turn back the focus for the main priority which is none other than the FIA World Touring Car Championship. Round 8 of the 2010 season is just a few days ahead, stay tuned and watch the events over the course of the weekend on Eurosport.

Photos by SEAT Sport

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