Michelisz takes pole with 8th in Germany

2010. szeptember 5. 14:15 | még nem szólt hozzá senki.  szerző: Viktor Adorján

Norbert Michelisz brought out as much as possible of Race 1 in Germany and finished 8th after starting from 15th on the grid thanks to his penalty. Therefore Michelisz will start Race 2 from pole position in Oschersleben. Team will investigate the cause of late race engine concerns.

Zengő-Dension Team's Norbert Michelisz created a little buzz in the paddock with his comments made on the press conference following his 5th place on qualifying for today's Race 1 of Germany by saying he would crash or gain a lot of places at the start and the first stage of the race.

Starting from 15th is always a risky situation and fortunately the weather turned to be brighter than it has ever been over the course of the weekend. The drivers begun the race in a reasonably clear fashion, only small contacts were made but these proved to be important. Augusto Farfus was holding the inside line in Turn 1 but Robert Huff pushed him off the line and took the lead.

Two notable accidents happened, one of them involved reigning world champion Gabriele Tarquini who later had to retire his car on the outside of a corner in a very dangerous position. Everybody was adamant that Safety Car would be deployed but in the end it didn't happen.

A collision between Fredy Barth and Jordi Gené also made way for Michelisz who was carefully moved higher and higher up and by the end of Lap 1 he was driving 10th. The field was more or less settled down as Huff was leading ahead team mate Alain Menu and Augusto Farfus.

On Lap 5 it was announced that Robert Huff was given a drive through penalty for pushing Farfus out of his way. By that time Michelisz was driving 9th and was quickly informed by the team that he is about to get the 8th spot which would mean pole position for him.

Huff failed to serve his penalty over the three laps available for him and was disqualified which moved Michelisz higher up by the end of Lap 9. Five laps were remaining and all he had to do was to conserve his position as realistically this result is the maximum that was available for grabs today.

Race 1 of Germany

Concerns towards the end

Three laps before the end of the race Michelisz was driving on 8th and got what he was hoping for but the pressure on the team didn't eased as the Hungarian driver reported over the radio that he has got problems with the performance of his engine.

At the end of Lap 11 he was 11.932 seconds behind race leader Alain Menu, a lap later it was 14.010 seconds and on the following lap it was more than 15 seconds. It was clear that catching Michel Nykjaer and taking the Rookie Challenge victory will not be possible, the target was then to keep Kristian Poulsen behind and secure the 8th position.

When the drivers reached the checkered flag Poulsen was less than 0.4 seconds behind Michelisz who struggled by the fluctuation of his engine power. The team started to discuss the issue immediately even before the car returned into the pits but they are not allowed to get their hands on it before the Parc Fermé opens up.

15 minutes will be available for Zengő-Dension Team to find and solve the issue which is thought to be the dysfunction of an engine sensor. In this case it is possible to get it done by the deadline before the beginning of Race 2.

But more importantly Norbert Michelisz will line up for the standing start on the first place following a start on Race 1 from 15th on the grid.

Penalties imposed after Race 2

No less than 15 drivers were penalized after Race 2 for exceeding the maximum 90 km/h speed limit at the rolling start on Race 1. The list of penalized drivers included Tom Coronel, Michel Nykjær, Norbert Michelisz, Kristian Poulsen, Sergio Hernandez , Fredy Barth, Jordi Gené, Franz Engstler, Mehdi Bennani, Stefano D’Aste, Sergei Romanov and Yokinuri Taniguchi.

Because of the big amount of penalties only a few of them modified the final classification as Coronel fell back to 6th while Monteiro and Priaulx gained 1-1 position respectively and moved up to 4th and 5th.

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