Norbert Michelisz took his second pole position of the FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) weekend in Sunday qualifying at the Hungaroring, heading fellow Hyundai racer Gabriele Tarquini by four tenths of a second.
Michelisz had earlier topped the Q2 session with a new lap record and in Q3 the Hungarian home hopeful once again delivered a scintillating lap, faster than his experienced team-mate by four tenths of a second.
“To be honest the car was just brilliant,”said Michelisz. “From the first moment in qualifying I just had the confidence to push and this also helped me to have clean laps.
“In Q2 I realised it was very difficult to go faster than that and when I learned the lap time of the others in Q3 the target was just to do a lap without any mistakes.”
Experienced tin-top racer Tarquini had no answer to Michelisz’s pace, but the BRC racing driver will start from second alongside his team-mate and extended his points lead in the process.
Saturday’s race one winner Esteban Guerrieri was third in his Honda, ahead of Münnich Motorsport team-mate Yann Ehrlacher in fourth, with the Frenchman ending up just over a second off the pace.
Boutsen Ginion Racing’s Benjamin Lessennes made it through to Q3 for the first time, but the Belgian missed his allocated time slot for leaving the pits and although he did take to the track he was subsequently black-flagged for driving through the red pit exit light.
YMR’s Yvan Muller just missed out on entry into Q3 and was sixth, ahead of the third Münnich Motorsport Honda of James Thompson in seventh and Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Mehdi Bennani in eighth.
Wildcard entry Attila Tassi was initially an impressive ninth, but was deemed to have crossed the finish line twice and had his times disallowed, leaving him in 12th. That promoted fellow Hungarian Dániel Nagy to ninth.
The second SLR Volkswagen of Rob Huff looked to have just missed out on the reverse and was 11th, but with Tassi’s laps being disallowed moved him into the reverse grid pole position for race two. Zengő Motorsport regular Norbert Nagy was 12th – making four Hungarian drivers in Q2 for the first time.
Indeed, the slowest of the Hungarians, Zengő Motorsport’s Zsolt Szabó, was as high as 13th and ended up as the top driver to not make it beyond Q1.
Reigning TCR International Series champion Jean-Karl Vernay was the best of the Audi driver in 15th, whilst Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil team-mate Gordon Shedden could only manage a slight improvement on Saturday, putting his RS3 in 21st for both races.
One of the biggest shocks in Q1 was that the Hyundai of Thed Björk failed to progress, with the Swede losing a lap time towards the end for exceeding track limits at Turn 11. That left the reigning WTCC champion with only one attempt to put in a top-12 time, but he could only manage the 20th fastest lap.
Race two takes place at 15:30 CEST (14:30 BST) with race three at 16:55 CEST (15:55 BST).
Q3 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 5 | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 3 | 1:52.365 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 30 | Gabriele TARQUINI |  |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 3 | 1:52.807 | 0.442 |
| 3 | 86 | Esteban GUERRIERI |  |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 3 | 1:53.023 | 0.658 |
| 4 | 68 | Yann EHRLACHER |  |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 3 | 1:53.366 | 1.001 |
| 5 | 63 | Benjamin LESSENNES |  |
Boutsen Ginion Racing | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 1 | No time | N/A |
Q2 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 5 | Norbert MICHELISZ | |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 1:52.176 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 30 | Gabriele TARQUINI | |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 4 | 1:52.382 | 0.206 |
| 3 | 86 | Esteban GUERRIERI | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 5 | 1:52.792 | 0.616 |
| 4 | 68 | Yann EHRLACHER | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 5 | 1:52.917 | 0.741 |
| 5 | 63 | Benjamin LESSENNES | |
Boutsen Ginion Racing | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 5 | 1:52.964 | 0.788 |
| 6 | 48 | Yvan MULLER | |
YMR | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 1:53.225 | 1.049 |
| 7 | 15 | James THOMPSON |  |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 5 | 1:53.415 | 1.239 |
| 8 | 25 | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 5 | 1:53.610 | 1.434 |
| 9 | 19 | Attila TASSI | |
KCMG | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 5 | 1:53.755 | 1.579 |
| 10 | 99 | Dániel NAGY | |
M1RA | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 1:53.800 | 1.624 |
| 11 | 12 | Rob HUFF | |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 5 | 1:53.801 | 1.625 |
| 12 | 8 | Norbert NAGY | |
Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 5 | 1:53.805 | 1.629 |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 48 | Yvan MULLER | |
YMR | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 7 | 1:52.780 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 86 | Esteban GUERRIERI | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 6 | 1:52.967 | 0.187 |
| 3 | 30 | Gabriele TARQUINI | |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 7 | 1:53.014 | 0.234 |
| 4 | 5 | Norbert MICHELISZ | |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 6 | 1:53.017 | 0.237 |
| 5 | 63 | Benjamin LESSENNES | |
Boutsen Ginion Racing | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 8 | 1:53.087 | 0.307 |
| 6 | 68 | Yann EHRLACHER | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 6 | 1:53.246 | 0.466 |
| 7 | 25 | Mehdi BENNANI | |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 9 | 1:53.358 | 0.578 |
| 8 | 15 | James THOMPSON | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 8 | 1:53.625 | 0.845 |
| 9 | 99 | Dániel NAGY | |
M1RA | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 7 | 1:53.649 | 0.869 |
| 10 | 12 | Rob HUFF | |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 8 | 1:53.786 | 1.006 |
| 11 | 8 | Norbert NAGY | |
Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 9 | 1:53.807 | 1.027 |
| 12 | 19 | Attila TASSI | |
KCMG | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 9 | 1:53.828 | 1.048 |
| 13 | 66 | Zsolt Dávid SZABÓ | |
Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 7 | 1:53.854 | 1.074 |
| 14 | 27 | John FILIPPI | |
Team Oscaro by Campos Racing | CUPRA TCR | 8 | 1:53.907 | 1.127 |
| 15 | 69 | Jean-Karl VERNAY | |
Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team | Audi RS3 LMS | 8 | 1:53.981 | 1.201 |
| 16 | 88 | Fabrizio GIOVANARDI | |
Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 7 | 1:53.995 | 1.215 |
| 17 | 23 | Nathanaël BERTHON | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS | 7 | 1:54.229 | 1.449 |
| 18 | 74 | Pepe ORIOLA |  |
Team Oscaro by Campos Racing | CUPRA TCR | 9 | 1:54.271 | 1.491 |
| 19 | 7 | Aurélien COMTE | |
DG Sport Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 7 | 1:54.416 | 1.636 |
| 20 | 11 | Thed BJÖRK |  |
YMR | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 8 | 1:54.562 | 1.782 |
| 21 | 52 | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team | Audi RS3 LMS | 9 | 1:54.610 | 1.830 |
| 22 | 9 | Tom CORONEL |  |
Boutsen Ginion Racing | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 9 | 1:54.661 | 1.881 |
| 23 | 70 | Mat’o HOMOLA |  |
DG Sport Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 7 | 1:54.795 | 2.015 |
| 24 | 21 | Aurélien PANIS | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS | 7 | 1:54.802 | 2.022 |
| 25 | 10 | Gianni MORBIDELLI | |
Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 3 | 1:55.024 | 2.244 |
| 26 | 22 | Frédéric VERVISCH | |
Audi Sport Team Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS | 7 | 1:55.233 | 2.453 |
| 27 | 20 | Denis DUPONT | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS | 7 | 1:55.994 | 3.214 |