» WTCC: Michelisz leads Honda 1-2-3 on home soil

Norbert Michelisz has secured Honda’s first ever factory 1-2-3 race finish in the World Touring Car Championship, leading home Rob Huff and Tiago Monteiro in the opening race at the Honda-owned Twin Ring Motegi circuit.

Michelisz started the reversed-grid race from pole position and led from start to finish without ever being challenged, only backing off in the final two laps to cross the line 1.3 seconds clear of Huff.

The start saw Michelisz lead from Huff and the fast-starting Sébastien Loeb Racing Citröen of Tom Chilton, but Chilton’s joy proved short-lived as he found himself bundled down a number of places with an untidy opening lap.

It was a poor opening lap for the privateer Citröen team, and Chilton’s teammate Mehdi Bennani undid his hopes of clinching the Independent Trophy title by jumping the start and earning a drive-through penalty, while the third car of Grégoire Demoustier was also handed a penalty for punting the LADA of Hugo Valente into retirement on the opening lap.

Starting from the fifth row of the grid, the two factory Citröens of Yvan Muller and José María López were making short order of the upper midfield and rapidly carved their way up to sixth and seventh behind Nicky Catsburg’s LADA.

Catsburg was proving resolute in his defence and managed to box Muller in to allow López ahead of his teammate on Lap 6. It took a further three laps before López could get by Catsburg; he forced the Dutch driver wide at the exit of Turn 1 to claim fifth place. Catsburg lost traction on the grass and in his attempts to keep momentum he violently swiped the back of López’s Citröen.

The damage to both cars proved superficial and they were able to continue, but Muller took advantage of the melee to also slip ahead of Catsburg.

Up at the front, the the Polestar Cyan Racing Volvo of Thed Björk held third place behind Huff and Michelisz, but was steadily finding the pace to be too much and came under attack from the third works Honda of Tiago Monteiro.

Monteiro would slip by on Lap 11 and, free of Catsburg, the two Citröens blasted by a lap later to bundle Björk down to sixth. Catsburg claimed seventh ahead of Chilton, while series returnee Néstor Girolami managed to fend off Gabriele Tarquini’s LADA in the final laps to secure ninth place in his first outing in a Volvo.

With the 14-lap main race to follow shortly, López needs to outscore Monteiro by at least 7 points – assuming the forthcoming round in Thailand is to be cancelled – in order to claim his third Drivers’ Championship crown.

2016 FIA WTCC Race of Japan – Race 1 Final Classification (13 laps)
	Driver	Team / Entry	Laps	Result
1.	Norbert Michelisz	Honda Racing Team JAS Civic WTCC	13	26:07.443
2.	Rob Huff	Honda Racing Team JAS Civic WTCC	13	+ 1.358
3.	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Racing Team JAS Civic WTCC	13	+ 2.173
4.	José María López	Citroën Racing WTCC C-Elysée	13	+ 3.609
5.	Yvan Muller	Citroën Racing WTCC C-Elysée	13	+ 4.805
6.	Thed Björk	Polestar Cyan Racing Volvo S60 TC1	13	+ 8.049
7.	Nick Catsburg	LADA Sport Rosneft Vesta WTCC	13	+ 8.738
8.	Tom Chilton	Sébastien Loeb Racing Citroën C-Elysée	13	+ 9.385
9.	Néstor Girolami	Polestar Cyan Racing Volvo S60 TC1	13	+ 10.135
10.	Gabriele Tarquini	LADA Sport Rosneft Vesta WTCC	13	+ 10.456
11.	Ryo Michigami	Honda Racing Team JAS Civic WTCC	13	+ 18.300
12.	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze	13	+ 18.691
13.	James Thompson	Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze	13	+ 21.696
14.	John Filippi	Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze	13	+ 26.419
15.	Dániel Nagy	Zengõ Motorsport Honda Civic WTCC	13	+ 26.935
16.	Mehdi Bennani	Sébastien Loeb Racing Citroën C-Elysée	13	+ 28.127
17.	Grégoire Demoustier	Sébastien Loeb Racing Citroën C-Elysée	13	+ 34.475
	Not Classified
DNF.	Ferenc Ficza	Zengõ Motorsport Honda Civic WTCC	5	Engine
DNF.	Hugo Valente	LADA Sport Rosneft Vesta WTCC	1	Collision