Switch to Michelisz as title charge begins
WTCR SLOVAKIA RING (SK) JULY 14-15 ROUND 5/10
If the World Touring Car Cup’s Vila Real round was a literal mess, the boost issues that dominated discussion during the Slovakia Ring weekend made the event a figurative muddle.
The controversy far from ruined the weekend, but it did deprive Norbert Michelisz’s first win of the season of the attention it deserved – a double frustration for the Hungarian, given he was one of the drivers to suffer most at the hands of the turbo-boost issue.
WTCR’S intra-hyundai battle had gone in favour of Yvan Muller’s YMR team of late, but it was clear early on in Slovakia that Michelisz and BRC team-mate Gabriele Tarquini held the upper hand.
Michelisz looked set for pole for much of first qualifying, but his failure to improve allowed Tarquini to slip ahead by a flattering three tenths. Muller was some six tenths further back in third but, even with Thed Bjork seventh in the sister YMR i30 N (albeit with an engine-change penalty looming), Hyundais again looked in control.
But there was a sting in the tail. All four cars were held in parc ferme, with three – Michelisz’s, Muller’s and Bjork’s – eventually deemed to have exceeded their maximum boost pressures and excluded from qualifying. They would start race one from the back of the grid.
That gave Tarquini a free pass, but the Italian looked slightly off the boil in the opener. Known for his fast getaways, Tarquini bogged down from pole and dropped into the middle of the top 10, allowing the Peugeot 308 TCR of Aurelien Comte into an early lead ahead of Pepe Oriola and Jean-karl Vernay. Cupra driver Oriola quickly cleared Comte to win from Vernay and the recovering Tarquini.
The veteran Italian did make amends later on Saturday, winning the reversed-grid race after beating polesitter Norbert Nagy’s Cupra off the line, to move back ahead of third-place finisher Muller in the drivers’ standings. But that still only came after a subdued second qualifying in which Tarquini was ninth while Michelisz romped to pole.
Considering he came close to winning the World Touring Car Championship at the end of 2017, Michelisz’s first half of ’18 had fallen somewhat flat. Dominant at home in Hungary, yet unfathomably without a win to show for it, his form had dipped at the following three events, and heading to Slovakia Michelisz trailed then-leader Muller by 47 points.
But the first signs of a fightback, after the disappointment of his qualifying exclusion and a subdued first race, were clear in race two as he fought through from as low as
11th to seventh, picking his way expertly through the pack. His Sunday drive to victory was about as complete as it can get.
Michelisz’s near-guaranteed Hungaroring victories were lost through poor starts, and he admitted on Saturday evening that he was still short of the “fine feeling for what to do” off the line. But, visibly more confident, Michelisz was aggressive in the finale, getting a good enough launch to quickly swoop to the right to block off Comte and maintain the lead. Incidents at Turn 3 on the opening lap required the safety car to get involved, but once racing resumed there was no stopping Michelisz, who won with ease from Comte and Frederic Vervisch – the Comtoyou Audi man losing out to Bjork, up from 18th on the grid, before repassing the Hyundai in a thrilling battle for third.
That breakthrough win boosted Michelisz’s title prospects, as the championship’s two main protagonists both retired. Tarquini was one of those caught up in the first Turn 3 skirmish – and was later deemed by stewards to be at fault – while Muller had been running second, only for his car to shed a wheel before the restart.