C3: Michelisz easy winner at the Slovakia Ring, Muller and Tarquini in the pile

The summer heat in Slovakia undoubtedly has something to do with it: this Sunday lunchtime, the competitors in the World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) put on a sizzling hot show.

When braking for the third corner, a pile-up caused havoc in the peloton. Nine pilots were involved, including the new championship leader Gabriele Tarquini (Hyundai). The Italian gave up, just like Benjamin Lessennes (Honda), Nathanaël Berthon (Audi), Mehdi Bennani (Volkswagen), Esteban Guerrieri (Honda), John Filippi (Cupra) and Norbert Nagy (Cupra, second in Race 2). The WRT team was decimated: Jean Karl Vernay and Gordon Shedden (Audi) have also given up.

Embarrassed by the accident, Yann Erlacher (Honda) fell back to the bottom of the rankings, just like Pepe Oriola (Cupra, winner of Race 1). The safety car intervened for four laps.

So, Yvan muller (Hyundai) disposait d’une fantastique opportunité de reprendre le large au classement général en étant deuxième. Hélas, the Frenchman's left front wheel came off at the time of the restart ! This allows Gabriele Tarquini to keep the accounting advantage.

The Yvan Muller Racing team does not leave Race 3 empty-handed because Thed Björk (started 18th) remarkably made his way to the foot of the podium. The 2017 WTCC champion must have been furious, however, since the podium was denied to him by 39 thousandths!

Frederic Vervisch (Audi) thus achieved its best performance of the year with this third place. The Czech Petr Fulin (Cupra), invited to this round, finished fifth, ahead of the Aflfa duo Romeo Giulietta from Team Mulsanne (rookie Kevin Ceccon 6th, Fabrizio Gionavardi 7th). The trans structurealpine had never recorded such a result in 2018.

Ultimately, the only man to have experienced a peaceful ordeal is Norbert Michelisz (Hyundai). The poleman preserved his property during the start and was never worried by Aurélien Comte (Peugeot ), who finished second.

Norbi Norbi Norbi WINNER! pic.twitter.com/zNMne2KXyc

— FIA WTCR / Oscaro (@FIA_WTCR) July 15, 2018

Find in issue 2174 of AUTOhebdo the analysis of the WTCR meeting at the Slovakia Ring by our special correspondent, available Monday evening in digital version and Wednesday on newsstands.

Ranking Race 3 WTCR at Slovakia Ring:

General ranking after the Slovakia Ring: