Norbert Michelisz was ‘delighted’ to reignite his World Touring Car Championship title aspirations in Portugal after adding a Main Race win to the pole position he scored on Saturday.
The Honda driver claimed a controlled lights-to-flag win in the second of Sunday’s races, leading home Volvo’s Thed Björk in the Main Race.
The result added to the seventh which Michelisz secured in the first race of the day, with the combined results moving the Hungarian back into title contention, even though he only just out-scored team-mate and championship leader Tiago Monteiro’s tally.
“I’m delighted because I knew after taking pole position yesterday that we had the pace in the Honda to win, and because I needed a result like this to really re-fire my title campaign,” said Michelisz, who is now fourth in the championship standings.
“My Opening Race start wasn’t good, but we made a good strategy with the joker lap and that meant I could climb from 10th to seventh by the end.
“My Main Race start was much better thankfully and I was able to control my pace and never really felt under threat.”
Honda Team Principal Alessandro Mariani praised Michelisz’s efforts, which came despite him feeling unwell throughout the weekend following a bout of illness.
“I am very happy because this weekend has gone very well,” added Mariani. “We’ve proved we have a very fast car on this kind of circuit and both Norbi and Tiago have scored big points.
“I’m delighted to see Norbi win because he has not been feeling well for most of the week, so he’s dug very deep for this one.”
“It’s an excellent day for us in championship and will give the whole team a big morale boost after we had a very tough weekend in Germany at the last round.”