2011. Oktober 24. 08:30  author: Viktor Adorján

Zengő Dension Team’s Norbert Michelisz completed two tough races on the Suzuka East Circuit and go classified as 15th and 9th on the races following a penalty imposed on him for speeding at the start. Michelisz and his team were experimenting with a new direction in terms of car setup.

It was only the second time this year that Norbert Michelisz couldn’t make it to the top 10 on qualifying. This indicated that Michelisz would face an uphill struggle on the races with his experimental car setup and with his position being in the midfield on the grid. 

As it was predicted, the maiden WTCC race at Suzuka started with a huge accident involving Polestar Racing’s Robert Dahlgren and SunRed’s Tiago Monteiro as both drivers retired immediately due severe damages on their cars. Norbert Michelisz managed to stay out of the trouble by a narrowly avoiding Monteiro’s car by driving into the runoff area and keeping 12th before the restart. Over the forthcoming laps, Norbert made up two positions and took 10th in the overall classification but a post-race penalty pushed him back to 15th.

Calm approach

Following the tough Race 1, the main goal was to successfully complete the distance in the points. With this in his mind, Norbert Michelisz managed to make up three positions at the start of Race 2 and gained a further position later in the race to take 9th in the overall classification in Race 2 of Japan.

Since there wasn’t any real opportunity to overtake safely, the Zengő Dension Team’s driver took a calm approach and brought the car home without any major incidents to add two more world championship points to his account.

“Starting from 13th on the grid on both races I didn’t anticipate changing the world so I’m not let down. If somebody would have offered me the ninth and tenth places, in a weak moment I would have signed but it keeps disturbing me that I couldn’t keep up the pace of the others,” Michelisz explained after Race 2.  

He added: “Especially on Race 1 because there were some tactics in the second one as I tried to separate (Kristian) Poulsen from the group ahead of me in places where I knew he would be unable to overtake. I wanted to make some room for myself to be able to deal only with him behind me.”

Norbert Michelisz now prepares for the Chinese round at the Tianma Circuit to be held in two weeks’ time.