Norbert Michelisz doubts that he could have gone any quicker in qualifying for the World Touring Car Championship races in Hungary, after ending the session in sixth as the best-placed Honda driver.
Honda struggled for pace in qualifying in Budapest, with none of the Civic drivers getting through to Q3 after battling with 80 kg of compensation weight for the first time this season.
Despite not making the cut, Honda did manage to beat Volvo in the manufacturers’ Q3 challenge, and Michelisz was optimistic after Saturday’s performances, believing that a podium result is still possible.
“I’m P6 and with 80kg on board, I think it was a fairly decent lap,” said Michelisz. “I doubt I could have been more than a tenth of a second faster today.
“P6 [for the Main Race] and P5 [for the Opening Race] puts me in a situation where I can potentially be in the podium positions just by starting well in both races. I’m sure we can find a little bit of extra speed in the car overnight and challenge for the top three.”
Honda Team Principal Alessandro Mariani admits that qualifying did not produce the planned results, with Honda having earlier been quickest in a wet second practice, showing the potential in the car.
“It’s very good to secure our first MAC3 victory of 2017 because it helps our position in the Manufacturers’ Championship,” said Mariani. “But overall qualifying did not go as we’d hoped. The circuit did not evolve as we’d expected when the sun came out and we didn’t go the right way with the set-up.
“Tomorrow we’re expecting dry weather, so the qualifying places could be decisive. We’ll start assessing ways to strengthen our performance for Sunday right away.”