Norbert Michelisz was delighted to score his first FIA World Touring Car Cup win of the season at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, after the Hungarian got the jump on Esteban Guerrieri at the very start of the race.
The BRC Racing driver leapt into the lead when the lights went out at the start, leading the Honda of Guerrieri into the first corner.
The Hungarian was then able to open up enough of a margin to the Münnich Motorsport driver to avoid being slipstreamed on the high-speed Döttinger Hohe straight, allowing him to score his first win of the year.
After moving up to second overall in the drivers’ standings, Michelisz said he was ‘delighted’ to take his first win of 2019 at the legendary circuit.
“I’m absolutely delighted with my first win this year,” said Michelisz. “I was a couple of times close to achieving that.
“In the end, if I can have a choice, it would be the Nürburgring that I would like to score the first win, so I’m incredibly happy.
“It was all down to the start. I saw that Esteban had some wheelspin, I don’t know what happened to him, but on the first momentum I was able to get beside him and then the race was settled after that.
“I was giving it 100% to get a big enough gap coming back to the main straight. Fortunately, the car was fantastic, so I was able to be confident and be able to push, and this was the key to success.
Michelisz admitted that he was not sure if he had the win in the bag even after the first two laps, with the 25.4 kilometre circuit being particularly demanding on tyres.
“It wasn’t easy; to be honest, on the first lap I was probably checking the mirrors more than I was looking ahead.
“When I saw that Esteban was slowly falling behind, I kept pushing because here it’s impossible to judge whether you will lose the front tyres and he will come back towards the end of the race.
“I was flat out, three qualifying laps, fortunately without any big mechanical issues.”