Norbert Michelisz was disappointed to ‘only’ qualify in the third position for today’s Main World Touring Car Championship race in Morocco, as his team-mate Tiago Monteiro took pole position.
Michelisz had earlier been the pace-setter in the morning’s first practice session, before Monteiro took over at the top of the times in second practice.
The Hungarian showed strong speed throughout qualifying, however, by topping the first Q1 segment, before ending Q2 just behind his team-mate.
In the end Michelisz couldn’t string together a quick enough lap in the one-shot Q3 session, leaving the Hungarian disappointed to miss out on pole by over three tenths of a second.
“Today is a tremendous team result and we have to be happy with that,” said Michelisz. “Personally, I’m a little disappointed to only qualify third because Tiago showed that the car was capable of pole position.
“I didn’t have the confidence on my Q3 lap to push to the absolute limit, so I don’t think I could have matched Tiago’s time no matter the circumstance.
“I missed all of FP1 with a small issue, but I honestly don’t know if missing 45 minutes of track time made a difference. I’m confident of scoring big points tomorrow.”
The Opening Race takes place at 16:35 BST (17:35 CEST) on Sunday, with the Main Race following at 17:45 BST (18:45 CEST).