Norbert Michelisz admits he is intrigued to see how the joker lap will play out in this weekend’s World Touring Car Championship races on the streets of Vila Real in Portugal.
The races in Vila Real, which is hosting its third WTCC event, will feature a ‘joker lap’ for the first-ever time, which will be at the final corner of the lap.
The roundabout turn normally sees drivers go to the right of the island, but the new joker lap will take drivers around the left-hand side, adding around two seconds to the lap. All drivers must use the joker lap once in each race.
“I’m very interested to see how the ‘joker lap’ will work,” said Michelisz. “The WTCC should be praised for attempting new things like this. I hope we can use it to our advantage.”
The Honda driver is currently seventh overall in the drivers’ championship standings, and heads into the weekend off the back of matching his strongest result of the season – second – last time out.
“After a run of bad luck in Italy and Hungary, I feel like we got ourselves back on-track in Germany with a strong podium finish.
“I don’t see any reason why we can’t continue to close in on the championship lead in Portugal. We’ve raced there since 2015 and I’ve finished on the podium in each of the past two seasons.”
Honda secured a 1-2 finish on the streets of Marrakech earlier in the year, and the Hungarian star is hoping that he can use that form to take him to a first victory of the season this weekend.
“The Honda is perfectly suited to street circuits, as everybody can see from how fast we’ve been on them recently, and I’m confident that we can score a lot of points and continue the battle this weekend.”