TCR World Tour - Norbert Michelisz takes the lead in Macau

The Hungarian driver won in the first race held on the Guia circuit. The 2019 WTCR champion was tight-lipped as he led the race from pole position. In the fight for the 2023 title, Rob Huff is 3rd in the race, Yann Ehrlacher 6th.

Published on 18/11/2023 à 08:08

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TCR World Tour – Norbert Michelisz takes the lead in Macau

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Norbert Michelisz did not let anyone challenge his chances of winning the first race. The pilot Hyundai Motorsport made a perfect start from pole position. Quickly at the forefront, the Hungarian takes the pack to the heights of Macao. Nestor Girolami follows suit followed by Rob Huff and Mikel Azcona. The big loser at the start of the race is none other than Yann Ehrlacher. The Frenchman failed to take off from the starting grid. Braking in Lisboa, the tricolor is in 10th place, so many positions which take it away from its hopes of a 3rd world crown.

Azcona spices up the race

Penalized the day before, the 2022 WTCR champion was the free electron of this first race. 4th behind Rob Huff, Azcona tried several times to dislodge the Englishman's Audi from 3rd place on the podium. The two sedans found themselves door to door on multiple occasions when braking in Lisboa. But Azcona will never find the opening and ranks 4th in this first race. Ehrlacher managed to move up to 6th place after overtaking the cars of his teammates Santiago Urrutia, Thed Björk and Ma Qing Hua.

At the head of the race, Norbert Michelisz continues to lead without really being worried by the Honda of Bebu Girolami. The championship leader will maintain the advantage and win for the 4th time of the season, he crosses the finish with more than half a second ahead of Nestor Girolami and almost 2 seconds over Rob Huff and his Audi Comtoyou Racing. The Hyundai driver is building a comfortable lead from a mathematical point of view. With only one race remaining, he has an 18-point lead over Huff and 20 over Ehrlacher.

The Lynk & Co driver was disappointed with his performance: “ We will have to analyze what happened at the start because the start simulations that I carried out before the race were good. My reaction time was also good, but the car didn't take off and I was even close to stalling. When I finally managed to start I had lost 8 places and my hopes of doing well in this race. It's not over, there are still 30 points to recover tomorrow and Norbie starts from 10th place tomorrow, I have no more questions to ask myself, we are going to go hard.»

The final race of the TCR World Tour regular season will be contested tomorrow morning on the streets of Macau starting at 3:20 a.m., and will be followed on YouTube.