Photo: WTCC Media

Honda happy with qualifying performances

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Zengő Motorsport’s Norbert Michelisz emerged as the highest-placed Honda Civic WTCC at Shanghai. The Hungarian was the only non-Citroën driver to make it to the final segment of the session, and beat Sébastien Loeb for fourth.

Michelisz came fifth in Q2, just ahead of fellow Honda drivers Gabriele Tarquini and Tiago Monteiro. The Castrol Honda pair worked with the customer teams on track by slipstreaming each other, with Proteam Racing’s Mehdi Bennani making the most out of it, finishing the session in tenth just a blink of an eye ahead of ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel.

The Moroccan will also start Race 2 from pole position, which makes the whole Honda crew believe they will fight for a podium finish tomorrow.

Michelisz was particularly happy with the way the Civic behaved, although he expected a smaller gap compared to the Citroëns:”“I am feeling very confident to be honest, the Civic is really responding well, “ said the Hungarian. ”I had hoped the gap was going to be smaller but for me that was the maximum. Row 2 is good and hopefully we will get a result”.

Both works drivers praised the development package brought by Honda, which proved to be vital on the fast Shanghai track. The team and the drivers are happy with the behaviour of the engine and are confident ahead of tomorrow.

Bennani celebrated big time after taking pole position for Race 2. The Moroccan is looking forward to tomorrow, particularly as this result was not expected before qualifying, ahead of which the team made significant changes to the Civic:”Our strategy worked perfect! We had changed the set-up considerably after the practice and it really improved the Civic. I was sure of my game and that I could push Coronel out in the last lap to take 10th position. The car was perfect. I’m very proud to be in pole for race 2 and, of course, I’m happy to be a Honda driver!”

Despite making progress, Honda will most likely see their Citroën rivals celebrate the Manufacturers’ title at the end of the first race tomorrow.