WTCC 2015: Michelisz bags home win in Hungaroring

In the WTCC Race of Hungary last May 1-2, local hero Norbert Michelisz capitalized on the reverse grid start and scored a win for the new Honda Civic in front of his home crowd. At the same time, Jose Maria Lopez extends his lead in the points race.

Race 1:

Starting from third on the grid, Jose Maria Lopez got a rocket start off from his Citroen team mate, Yvan Muller, who started in pole. Lopez would take the lead by the time he reached the first turn. Muller's botched start ended the Frenchman's streak of wins in Hungary which began in 2011. Lopez would run away with the win with Hugo Valente keeping second place from start to finish. Because of his slow start, Yvan Muller dropped to third and Ma Quing Hua crossing the line fourth after immense pressure from Tiago Monteiro, who finished fifth in his Honda. Sebastien Loeb would finish all the way down in sixth after he ran wide in the first turn. Rounding up the top ten are Tom Chilton, local hero Norbert Michelisz, Rob Huff and Tom Coronel.

Race 2:

With the reverse grid rule in applied for race two, eighth place finisher Norbert Michelisz started on pole in front of his home crowd, much to their delight. An incident in the first lap took out top 10 finisher Rob Huff. Also retiring are Mikhail Kozlovskiy and Mehdi Bennani. Michelisz avoided all trouble as he cruised to victory in his home track. His victory also marks Honda's first win with the upgraded WTCC spec Civic. ROAL Motorsport team mates Tom Coronel and Tom Chilton finished second and third respectively with Tiago Monteiro finishing fourth. Sebastien Loeb emerged unscathed in the first lap scuffle and managed to finish fifth. Race one winner Jose Maria Lopez finished sixth with Citroen team mate Yvan Muller in tow in seventh. The rest of the top ten finishers were Ma Qing Hua and Grégoire Demoustier who finished ninth and tenth respectively.

WTCC's next round will be on May 15-16 in the Race of Germany to be held in the Nurbugring Nordschleife.