Honda secured a third MAC3 victory of the 2016 season and a pole position at the fifth round of the FIA World Touring Car Championship at the Nürburgring in Germany.
Tiago Monteiro, Rob Huff and Norbert Michelisz put on a display of perfect precision driving during the one-lap MAC3 team time trial on the fearsome 26-kilometre Nürburgring Nordschleife.
In stopping the clock just over 1.4 seconds clear of their nearest rival manufacturer, the trio’s achievement ensured that no manufacturer has taken more MAC3 victories than Honda in 2016.
Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team driver Monteiro, who lies second in the championship, will start the opening race from pole position under the reversed-grid regulations after going 10th fastest in a qualifying session that was affected by a red flag. He will start the main race 10th.
His team-mate Rob Huff suffered two accidents in practice, one of which damaged his engine and necessitated a change of powerplants ahead of FP2.
The resultant grid penalty means that the 2012 WTCC champion will start the opening race from 17th and last, but eighth spot in qualifying means he still has a strong chance to a sizeable haul of points in the main race.
Fellow factory driver Norbert bounced back from a throttle-sensor issue in practice to claim fourth spot in qualifying and two bonus championship points. He will start the opening race from sixth.
Unusually at the Nürburgring, both WTCC races will take place on Saturday. The opening race begins at 11h20 with the main race starting at 12h45.
Tiago Monteiro, Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team, said: “Pole is pole, no matter how it comes, and it’s definitely the best place to start a race from. When you start from pole, the aim is to win, but I know I’ll have to push very hard in the twisty part of the Nordschleife to create a gap, because the other cars seem to have very good speed down the long straight. I finished third last year from pole and we’re in a stronger position this year in terms of the car, so I think we have a chance.”
Rob Huff, Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team, said: “It’s great for us to win MAC3 for the third time this year and it gives the team a boost after what’s been a pretty difficult weekend. After my accident in FP1, we had to change the engine in my car due to damage, and that unfortunately means the penalty of starting last for the opening race. Knowing that was coming, I hoped that I could qualify well to reward my crew for staying up all night to fix my car, but I made a few small mistakes and P8 is the result. Tomorrow’s another day though and we’ll see what we can do.”
Norbert Michelisz, Honda Racing Team JAS, said: “I’ll start the main race from the second row, and coming into this event, we knew that was pretty much the maximum that we could achieve. Considering we didn’t have time to fit new tyres in FP0 and then had an issue with the throttle sensor in FP1, managing to get this result is not bad at all. But the gap to pole position is larger than I’d have liked it to be and we’ll have to work hard tonight to see if there’s anything we can do to strengthen our position for Saturday’s races. The positive of the day was winning MAC3, which was a great team result.”
Alessandro Mariani, Team Principal, said: “Today represents a strong result after what’s been a difficult weekend for us so far. The ideal set-up today is not what we expected after FP0 on Thursday due to the rain overnight changing the track conditions, so that was an extra challenge. The MAC3 result is truly a team result; for the drivers who made no mistakes and for the mechanics who have put in so much hard work to fix the issues we’ve had on all three cars. Tomorrow we have a pole position for Tiago and the aim must be to win if we can.”
Daisuke Horiuchi, Large Project Leader WTCC Development, Honda R&D, said: “We’ve had a challenging weekend as a team so far, but right now we have a MAC3 victory and important points for the manufacturers’ championship plus pole position for the opening race here in Germany and three cars in the top 10 in qualifying. This shows the strength of the team and of the Civic WTCC. The aim for Tiago tomorrow must be to convert pole position into victory and I hope that all three drivers can perform strongly.”
