Zengő Motorsport’s Norbert Michelisz secured his second Yokohama Trophy for independents in the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) races in Qatar, pipping Moroccan Mehdi Bennani to the title.
Despite being outscored by rival Bennani in the first of Friday evening’s races, Michelisz was able to hold on to a podium finish in race two to add to the title he took in 2012 at the wheel of a BMW car.
Despite winning the privateer’s title, Michelisz failed to match his championship classification from 2014, where he finished as the leading Honda driver and ‘best of the rest’ behind the Citroën drivers. Instead the Hungarian was classified in sixth overall in 2015, four points behind works’ Honda driver Gabriele Tarquini.
“I’m really happy because I said many times that finishing as high as possible in the overall standings after last season is the main priority for me,” said Michelisz. “To be honest, I had some extra pressure before this race weekend because watching Mehdi’s performance for the last two or three race weekends was really impressive. I knew before arriving here that I had to have a perfect weekend in terms of qualifying, race one and race two because he’s on top of his game.
“He [Bennani] also had the perfect weekend, finishing second in qualifying and on the podium in the first race and pushing hard in the second one. He also really deserves top spot in the standings.
“I have to say a huge thank you and a big congratulations to my team. Looking from the outside I think people really underestimate the work the Zengő boys are putting in through all the weekends, so I have to say thank you to them.
“When you are a driver you are always in the spotlight and people cheer for something but what they did was at least 50 per cent of this result so I’m also really happy for them.”
Dominic Köfner, Vice President of Corporate Communications at Michelisz’s main sponsor MOL Group, also paid tribute to his success.
“We congratulate Norbi on his huge success,” said Köfner. “It is great to see Norbi’s energy which drives him to bring out the best of him in order to get to the top.
“This time he proved again that he is one of the best drivers in the WTCC series as he challenged his competitors with his exceptional focus and discipline. We are proud that we support such a great ambition and have done for four years now.”