Norbert Michelisz extends TCR World Tour lead with Vallelunga win
BRC Racing’s Norbert Michelisz extended his TCR World Tour lead with victory in Race 1 at Vallelunga.
Both Michelisz and team-mate Mikel Azcona did not have great starts from the front row in their Hyundai Elantra N TCRs but kept their positions, while Comtoyou Racing’s Frédéric Vervisch charged past Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk for third.
A gap of 0.499 seconds was built by Michelisz on the opening lap, and it fluctuated between 0.5 and 0.8s until the penultimate lap when Azcona got his lead down to 0.461.
However it was not quite enough to be in a position to attempt to overtake, and they finished the race 0.564 apart.
“Car was working very good. We were here testing one month ago and we focused on the long distance,” said Michelisz. “Yesterday I thought we got a bit lucky [taking pole], but I think today we were well prepared. And with Mikel behind it’s never easy.”
The winner also refuted any suggestion that BRC implemented team orders on the battle between himself and Azcona.
Vervisch could not match the pace of the top two but was only losing one or two tenths of a second per lap until lap 12 of 14 when a problem in his Audi RS 3 LMS II TCR led to him slowing down significantly and falling to the back of the field.
That promoted Björk back up to third, with Comtoyou’s Rob Huff in fourth and Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher a distant fifth.
There was very little action behind after the first few laps, with Aurélien Comte putting in some ambitious moves before he retired his Cupra Leon Competición TCR on lap 11, and Marco Butti having several battles but finishing outside of the top ten.
Claiming tenth place was Comtoyou’s John Filippi, who was shown the black-and-white flag during the race.
Race 2 takes place at 16:00 local time (CEST).
