» WTCR: Michelisz wins crash-hit final race

Norbert Michelisz finally claimed his first win of the 2018 FIA World Touring Car Cup season, with a lights-to-flag drive to victory in the final race of the weekend at the Slovakiaring.

It was a race where a number of the championship frontrunners failed to finish, marred by two multi-car accidents on the opening lap. Michelisz victory, following that of BRC Racing teammate Gabriele Tarquini, moves the Hungarian into third place in the Drivers’ Championship standings.

Reflecting just how varied this inaugural WTCR season has been, Michelisz is the eighth different race-winner in the last eight races and the eleventh driver in the field to step atop the podium.

Starting from pole position, Michelisz made a clean getaway in his Hyundai i30 N TCR and forcefully shut the door on DG Sport Peugeot 308TCR of Aurélien Comte on the run to Turn 1. He led all the way from there on, with Comte slotting into second place ahead of Yvan Muller’s YMR Hyundai.

There was major drama by Turn 3. Race 2 winner Gabriele Tarquini missed his braking point and hit the rear of Benjamin Lessennes’ Boutsen Ginion Honda, turning the Belgian teenager into a spin whereupon he collected the sister Honda of Münnich Motorsport’s Esteban Guerrieri. The Campos Racing Cupra of John Filippi was in turn collected by Guerrieri, putting all four cars out of the race.

Further down the order, the two WRT Audis of Jean-Karl Vernay and Gordon Shedden were also forced into retirement, having been hit by the Zengõ Motorsport of Norbert Nagy and the SLR Volkswagen of Mehdi Bennani respectively.

The carnage dramatically shuffled the order and with the race neutralised behind the Safety Car, Michelisz led from Muller and Comte, with Frédéric Vervisch fourth in his Comtoyou Audi ahead of the Mulsanne Alfa Romeo of Fabrizio Giovanardi. Lying an incredible sixth was Muller’s teammate Thed Björk, who started the race from eighteenth on the grid.

As the Safety Car peeled into the pits at the end of Lap 4, disaster struck Muller when his left-front wheel parted company with his car at Turn 13, sending the Frenchman into the gravel trap and instant retirement.

That promoted Comte to second place, but the Zandvoort race-winner had no answer for Michelisz’s pace. The pair would finish first and second, ahead of a wildly entertaining scrap for the final podium position as a number of drivers attacked Vervisch.

His first assailant was Giovanardi, who harried the Belgian’s Audi for the next four laps until he was passed by Björk. The Swede tried every trick at his disposal to get by Vervisch, with the two repeatedly rubbing door panels as they drew alongside each other for lap after lap. Björk briefly got ahead at the end of Lap 12, only to be repassed at the start of the final lap by Vervisch.

The pair’s scrap continued throughout the final lap, with Vervisch winning out in a desperate sprint for the finish line by just 0.039 seconds.

That left Björk to finish fourth ahead of wildcard driver Petr Fulín, who managed to slot his privately entered Cupra ahead of the Alfa Romeos of series debutante Kevin Ceccon and his teammate Giovanardi, who was shuffled back in the final laps.

Tom Coronel finished eighth as the sole Honda driver in the points, ahead of the Cupra TCRs of Pepe Oriola (Campos Racing) and Zsolt Szabó (Zengõ Motorsport).

With its run of European races now complete, the FIA World Touring Car Cup takes a two-month break and will regroup for the seventh round of the championship at China’s Ningbo International Speedpark at the end of September.

2018 FIA World Touring Car Cup Race of Slovakia – Race 3 Final Classification (13 laps)
	Driver	Team	Laps	Result	Pts
1.	Norbert Michelisz	BRC Racing Team	13	32:25.458	30
2.	Aurélien Comte	DG Sport Compétition	13	+ 2.005	23
3.	Frédéric Vervisch	Audi Sport Team Comtoyou	13	+ 8.273	19
4.	Thed Björk	MRacing – YMR	13	+ 8.312	16
5.	Petr Fulín	Fullin Race Academy	13	+ 8.796	13
6.	Kevin Ceccon	Mulsanne SRL	13	+ 9.150	10
7.	Fabrizio Giovanardi	Mulsanne SRL	13	+ 9.382	7
8.	Tom Coronel	Boutsen Ginion Racing	13	+ 9.729	4
9.	Pepe Oriola	Team OSCARO by Campos Racing	13	+ 11.065	2
10.	Zsolt Dávid Szabó	Zengõ Motorsport	13	+ 11.721	1
11.	Aurélien Panis	Comtoyou Racing	13	+ 15.253
12.	Mat’o Homola	DG Sport Compétition	13	+ 20.767
13.	Andrej Studenič	Brutal Fish Racing	13	+ 25.516
14.	Rob Huff	Sébastien Loeb Racing	13	+ 46.026
15.	Yann Ehrlacher	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	13	+ 1:24.581
16.	Denis Dupont	Comtoyou Racing	12	+ 1 lap
	Not Classified	Team	Laps	Result
DNF.	Yvan Muller	MRacing – YMR	3	Wheel
DNF.	Mehdi Bennani	Sébastien Loeb Racing	1	Collision
DNF.	Gordon Shedden	Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team	1	Collision
DNF.	Nathanaël Berthon	Comtoyou Racing	1	Collision
DNF.	Norbert Nagy	Zengõ Motorsport	1	Collision
DNF.	Jean-Karl Vernay	Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team	1	Collision
DNF.	John Filippi	Team OSCARO by Campos Racing	0	Collision
DNF.	Esteban Guerrieri	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	0	Collision
DNF.	Benjamin Lessennes	Boutsen Ginion Racing	0	Collision
DNF.	Gabriele Tarquini	BRC Racing Team	0	Collision

* Post-Race Penalties:

Gabriele Tarquini was issued a 5-place grid penalty for Race 1 at the Race of China (Ningbo) for causing avoidable contact on Lap 1.
Norbert Nagy was issued a 5-place grid penalty for Race 1 at the Race of China (Ningbo) for causing avoidable contact on Lap 1.

Images via FIA WTCR Media