Attila Tassi delighted with front-row performance for new M1RA team

17-year-old Hungarian Attila Tassi has qualified on the front row for the first race of the 2017 TCR International Series at the Rustavi circuit in Georgia, and will start the first race behind local driver Davit Kajaia for the team which was amongst the last to finalise its plans to be on the grid this year.

The team which has been born out of the ashes of the B3 Team Hungary squad, run by Dávid Bari and Norbert Michelisz, with with Michelisz’s WTCC race engineer Gergõ engineering him this weekend, Tassi topped the second practice session before qualifying the Honda Civic TCR in second for the first race.

“This weekend feels amazing,” said Tassi to TouringCarTimes. “I was preparing for this season really hard during the winter break, and my aim was to get into the top three by the end of the season, but I hope this will work out not only for this weekend but all of them.”

“It feels good. It’s a new car and it’s really good, and the team have done a brilliant job. I thank my parents for giving me the chance to be here, and Norbi (Norbert Michelisz), as he’s given me a lot of great guidance.”

Tassi’s still chasing his first win in the series, as will pole-man Kajaia, and admits he was surprised with the pace of the Alfa in qualifying, but still hopes to be able to fight on Sunday.

“When I saw he was ahead of us by six tenths I was a bit disappointed, but tomorrow we’ll just try to have a good start and if I have a good start and get ahead, I’ll do my best to defend the position.”