Honda secured the best team performance in FIA World Touring Car Championship field qualifying for the third round of the 2016 series in Hungary to put three Civic WTCCs inside the top-six positions and take MAC3 victory.
Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team drivers Rob Huff and Tiago Monteiro showed superb pace at the Hungaroring circuit near Budapest to progress to the final, Q3, section of qualifying, and secured spots on the second row of the grid for Sunday’s main race
Coupled with sixth place for team-mate Norbert Michelisz, who was driving in front of his home crowd, Honda was the only manufacturer to have three of its cars on the front three rows.
Despite being laden with 70kg of success ballast as a result of Honda’s superb start to the season, Rob, Tiago and Norbert all performed strongly during free practice and the early stages of qualifying.
Rob looked on course to secure the 12th pole position of his WTCC career after setting the pace in Q2. But changing temperatures and the single-car format of Q3 meant he was not on the circuit when track conditions were at their peak.
Third on the grid for the main race – and eighth for the reversed-grid opening race – still marked his best qualifying performance of the season, however.
Tiago, who last weekend in Slovakia became the first Portuguese driver to lead an FIA World Championship, ran consistently inside the top five during practice and qualified fourth, which also puts him seventh on the grid for the opener.
After going fastest in Friday testing, and setting top-four times in both of Saturday’s free practice sessions, home hero Norbert Michelisz easily progressed to Q2 and then maintained his record of qualifying inside the top-six at every round this season.
Spurred on by a loud and vocal crowd in the grandstands, Norbert will start sixth for the main race and fifth for the opener to complete the best team qualifying performance of the 2016 campaign.
Following qualifying, the third MAC3 session of the season took place, with manufacturers’ championship points on offer for the two-lap team time trial
Norbi led Tiago and Rob around the 4.4-kilometre Hungaroring circuit fast enough to secure second place, just 0.174 away from victory after an ultra-close battle. This later became victory after another manufacturer was penalised for a rules infringement.
Sunday’s opening race gets underway at 14h15 with the main race following at 17h15.
Rob Huff, Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team, said: “I’m very happy with how today’s gone. Every time we’ve gone out, we’ve made the car go faster and faster. My second run in Q2 was, to that point, the best of anybody this weekend. Because the car was perfect, we didn’t change anything for Q3. Unfortunately, the track conditions changed and I lost some time in the first few corners and wasn’t able to recover. But P3 is still my best qualifying performance of the season and it shows the speed we’ve found in the car, even with 70kg on board. The circuit revisions were also very good. The new kerbs are much better and we’ve had no issues with the new track surface. The organisers at the Hungaroring have done a very good job.”
Tiago Monteiro, Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team, said: “I’ve been starting very well this year and made up at least one place in pretty much every race off the line. So to be fourth on the grid for the main race and seventh for the opening race, I’m reasonably confident of still being in a very good position after Turn 1 in each race. Obviously we have run 0kg of compensation weight in France and Slovakia and here we will have 70kg and be almost the heaviest car here. But we’ve done lots of testing in the winter with a heavy car in anticipation of this. Looking after our tyres will be crucial if it stays dry, but the car is very strong and the podium is the minimum I’m aiming for.”
Norbert Michelisz, Honda Racing Team JAS, said: “To say that I’m disappointed with P6 shows how far we’ve come over the winter. I thought we would struggle with 70kg on board this weekend on such a twisty circuit; especially as our testing with weight had been in much colder track conditions. But to be only two or three tenths away from pole is really positive. I think there’s a very strong chance of a podium from where we’re starting. It would mean the world to me to stand on the podium in front of the Hungarian fans. They give me so much incredible support and I’d love to say thank you with a top-three finish.”
Alessandro Mariani, Team Principal, said: “I’m happy with the result today, but not surprised by it at all. We knew we’d have a big challenge to come here with 70kg of ballast, but I was confident that the steps we made during the winter, and all the testing we did with weight on the car, would pay off. We can see that this is exactly what happened. I think we were a little unlucky that in Q3 we were not on the track when the conditions peaked, but that’s racing. We should be competitive tomorrow, wet or dry. We’d prefer it to be dry because the track conditions are less of a lottery, but I believe that as a group, we have the best drivers in the WTCC and their abilities mean the wet isn’t really a problem.”
Daisuke Horiuchi, Large Project Leader WTCC Development, Honda R&D: “In qualifying terms, we have improved at every race this year, which is a testament to the work we have done with the car during the winter. All three drivers have qualified inside the top six, which is the first time this has happened in 2016 and also makes Honda the only manufacturer to achieve this in Hungary. We should not forget that we have done this with 70kg of compensation weight on the car, which increases the challenge we face to make the car competitive over a race weekend. There is still work to do to make sure the cars are competitive in racing conditions, but we will work on this thoroughly overnight.”
