SEPANG, Dec 15 — Hungarian driver Norbert Michelisz of BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse won Race 1 of the World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) Race of Malaysia at the Sepang International Circuit today.
The 35-year-old driver, who started from the pole position, claimed victory with a flawless performance even as the weather created a tense and unpredictable opening race.
With the victory, Michelisz has extended his points lead with a total of 351 after collecting 25 winning points.
“I managed to keep my rhythm which again was far from easy because it was a constantly changing balance. But in the end the important thing was to win the race and extend the lead because now this was a good step in the right direction. We are 27 points ahead but there are still 50 to collect, so there is still a long way to go,” he said in a press conference after Race 1.
Michelisz crossed the finishing line in a time of 26 minutes 02.896 seconds, 2.446s ahead of Comtoyou DHL Team Cupra Racing driver Aurelien Panis, who claimed his first podium finish for the season, while Michelisz’s teammate Gabriele Tarquini was third with 26:12.905s.
Michelisz’s title rivals Esteban Guerrieri of ALL-INKL.COM Munnich Motorsport rose from ninth on the grid to finish fourth, while Cyan Racing Lynk & Co’s Yvan Muller tore through the field from P16 to sixth.
The race started behind the safety car as the wet weather forced teams to gamble on tyre choices which saw many of the drivers choosing dry slick tyres on the front and wet-weather threaded tyres on the rear.
After one lap behind the safety car, the action was launched with Michelisz and Panis making strong getaways to escape from the pack.
“The tyres, usually this choice never worked but today we are a bit lucky.
“And with two to five minutes on board, we are not sure but the team decided to take this one. We are really thankful to them because in the end that was just a perfect one,” he added.
Malaysian wildcard drivers Mitchell Cheah and Hafizh Syahrin Abdullah, who were making their debut in the WTCR race, finished 19th (27:06.605s) and 25th (27:27.171s) respectively.
Mitchell, who pushed himself to forget his pain as he jumped into the car, said he was a bit slow trying to adapt in full-slick tyres in the wet and it took him two laps to realise that there was a lot of grip on the slicks even though it was raining.
“I think at the start we dropped to 28 and we managed to come back to finish 19th. So, it was a good result at the end. Maybe with a bit more laps I could have overtaken a few more cars but to be inside 20 is a good result for this race,” he said.
The Race 2 and Race 3 will resume at 6.15pm and 8.10pm respectively. — Bernama
