The Honda Civic WTCC shared victory in the second round of the FIA World Touring Car Championship’s ‘Manufacturers Against the Clock’ contest at the Slovakia Ring on Saturday, while all three factory cars qualified inside the top seven positions for Sunday’s races.
Leading the manufacturers’ championship as the crews arrived in Slovakia, Honda was the last of the three MAC3 contenders to take to the track; Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team drivers Rob Huff and Tiago Monteiro joined by fellow factory racer Norbert Michelisz in the three-car team time trial
An incredibly tight battle against the other manufacturers resulted in the Civics setting the pace in a time equal to its main rival to the nearest thousandth of a second.
Ahead of MAC3, the battle for pole position for Sunday’s Main Race was as close as ever with all three factory Honda drivers aiming to make it into the final ‘Q3’ section of qualifying following competitive showings in the day’s two free practice sessions
Norbert, who been the fastest of the Honda drivers during practice, carried his pace into qualifying and set the quickest time of all in Q2, which determined the five drivers that would contest pole position in the Q3 single-lap shoot-out.
Although the Hungarian could not convert his Q2 pace into pole, he did secure fourth spot on the grid for the main race; his best qualifying performance since becoming a factory Honda racing driver. He will start seventh on the partially-reversed opening-race grid. British racer Rob also progressed into Q3 and will start the main race fifth and the opener sixth.
The bonus points the 2012 WTCC champion achieved helped move him into equal second place in the drivers’ standings with Portuguese team-mate Tiago. Tiago was seventh-fastest in Q2 meaning he will start there for the main race. It also guarantees him fourth spot on the grid of the opening race.
The opening race takes place at 12h10 local time on Sunday with the main race following at 14h15
Norbert Michelisz, Honda Racing Team JAS: “My target was to at least be on the podium this weekend and it still is. Going fastest in Q2 was great, but we knew it would be very difficult to make another step in Q3 to challenge for pole, so fourth for the main race and seventh for the opening race is okay. We know that the Honda is always a stronger car in race set-up than in qualifying, so I have no doubt we can show good pace and put our rivals in front of us under some very big pressure. We are still lighter weight-wise than our main rivals and I expect us to take advantage of this tomorrow to a greater extent than we did at Paul Ricard because of the nature of the circuit.”
Tiago Monteiro, Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team: “To share victory in MAC3 is a great way to end the day. As MAC3 was really only a two-car contest in France, this was really our first opportunity to have a proper go under competitive conditions, so to share the victory was a very good achievement and came as a result of great teamwork. My qualifying was OK. It was not as strong as at Paul Ricard, but we have focused on race set-up during practice so from P7 for the main race and P4 for the opening race, I think a podium is very realistic to aim for.”
Rob Huff, Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team: “To go from nearly not making Q2 to eventually ending up in Q3 and having a shot at pole position showed a pretty good recovery from the team. And then to add victory in MAC3 made it an even better way to end Saturday. There’s still a little bit of speed left to find in the car, but we know our race pace is going to be strong, so I’m very confident we’ll be able to move up the order tomorrow.”
Alessandro Mariani, Team Principal: “Qualifying was a pretty good result for us. Ever since the WTCC moved to TC2 cars in 2014, we’ve never been able to fully exploit our car’s performance on new tyres, but our race pace has always been good. To have three cars in the top seven for both of tomorrow’s races – and Norbi fastest in Q2 as well – we can be confident of some strong results because we know what our race pace is. MAC3 was fantastic. I thought we would win because we were ahead right up to the final sector, but setting the same time as our main rival, and sharing the points, means great excitement for the fans. We had a strategy, which worked quite well, and definitely gives us a good platform on which to build throughout the season.”
Daisuke Horiuchi, Large Project Leader WTCC Development, Honda R&D: “To have all three cars in the top seven represents an improvement on what we managed at Paul Ricard at the opening round. On raceday we were able to turn that into four podium finishes out of a possible six. This is a circuit that should play to the strengths of the Civic WTCC in racing conditions more than it did in qualifying. With this in mind, and three excellent drivers behind the wheel, I’m optimistic that we can take some more podium finishes at least. We came here leading the manufacturers’ championship, and our aim is to leave Slovakia still in that position
