Photo: WTCR

Norbert Michelisz takes victory in Portugal and decimates the points lead

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Norbert Michelisz went from lights-to-flag to win the first race of the weekend at Vila Real in his BRC Racing Team Hyundai i30 N TCR, and has more than halved the points gap to championship leader Esteban Guerrieri’s Honda, who dropped to 24th with an engine problem.

Michelisz led the way at the start ahead of team-mate Augusto Farfus, with Yann Ehrlacher’s Lynk & Co third and Rob Huff’s Sébastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen fourth, while the Alfa Romeo of Ma Qing Hua failed to get away and dropped to the back of the pack from fifth on the grid.

On the third lap of the race, the joker lap was enabled, and the two leading Hyundais and Rob Huff’s Volkswagen were among the first to take it, while Ehrlacher stayed out and put in a quick lap, jumping ahead of Farfus’s Hyundai when he took his own joker lap a lap later.

The only DNF of the race occurred on lap five, when the KCMG Honda of Tiago Monteiro and his former Honda team-mate Gabriele Tarquini locked wheels while battling for ninth, with Tarquini off and out, while Monteiro dropped to the back of the pack.

Ehrlacher began to break away from Farfus behind, with the Brazilian busy defending against Rob Huff’s Volkswagen.

One of the last to take his joker lap was Johan Kristoffersson, who’d moved up to fifth, but dropped to seventh, just staying ahead of Thed Björk’s Lynk & Co 03 TCR.

Esteban Guerrieri had made his way up to 14th in his Münnich Motorsport Honda, but began to drop back with an engine problem in the final stages, and crossed the line 24th, well outside of the points.

Michelisz went on to win by 2.3 seconds, with Farfus third, Huff fourth, and Nicky Catsburg finishing in fifth in his BRC Racing Hyundai.

Aurélien Panis was sixth in his Comtoyou Racing Cupra TCR, with Kristoffersson’s Volkswagen and Björk’s Lynk & Co behind, with Yvan Muller’s Lynk & Co ninth, and the WRT Audi of Jean-Karl Vernay completing the top ten.

Michelisz’s victory sees him close to 15 points from Guerrieri, heading into tomorrow’s two races, with the qualifying session at 10:00 WEST (11:00 CEST).