British Driver Robert Huff, Morocco’s Mehdi Bennani, British Driver Tom Chilton, Sweden’s Thed Bjork and Hungarian star Norbert Michelisz pose for a photograph following a press conference held at the Losail International Circuit yesterday.
Honda star Norbert Michelisz is hoping momentum remains on his side as the Hungarian bids to outshine World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) points leader and arch-rival Thed Bjork ahead of tonight’s final round at the Losail International Circuit (LIC).
With a tally of just 6.5 separating the two WTCC stars in the points race, Michelisz yesterday looked remarkably calm at the pre-event media conference held at Qatar’s iconic race track.
“Right now, I feel strong and confident; I feel like there’s nothing to lose in the championship really, I’ve always been trying to catch up,” Michelisz said.
“Just three races ago in Japan I was more than 30 points behind, now it’s 6.5, so I’ll just try to carry this momentum through the weekend,” he added as Bjork looked on.
Michelisz said he feels relaxed going into tonight’s final round that will see drivers competing for 60 points over two races.
“Of course, there is a bit of extra excitement, but so far, it’s like a usual race weekend,” Michelisz said yesterday.
“We just have free practice sessions today, so there’s not really much at stake right now. I’m really just focussed on the job of being well prepared for tomorrow,” he added.
Besides Michelisz and Björk, there are a total of six drivers who could mathematically still win the championship.
SLR Citroëns drivers Mehdi Bennani of Morocco Great Britain’s Tom Chilton are 39.5 and 45 points behind respectively.
Michelisz and Björk’s team-mates Esteban Guerrieri and Nicky Catsburg are also in contention. Bjork will be driving for Polestar Cyan Racing in his Volvo S60.
When asked to comment about his mental state going into the final round, Bjork said yesterday: “I’m not really thinking about (them). It feels like this is the showdown and the fight (between myself and Norbert).”
He added: “If we were really crazy and took out each other on the first lap, then I think we’d be handing the championship to the others, but I don’t think we will do that. We would like to have a good fight and see what happens through both races.”
He explained: “It feels great, nice to be here, really relaxed and I’m looking forward to start driving because that’s what we’re all here for. Everybody wants to go out on track and thinking about it before makes not so much sense.”
Bjork said a dogfight is on the cards.
“I think it’s great we are here, that we can fight until the last corner, maybe, hopefully. It’s a nice final, it feels nice to be here. So much effort has been put into this to be fighting for the championship and it feels good. The atmosphere is good and I like it,” the popular Swede said,
“My target is not to look at what others are doing,” Michelisz said.
“I’m not approaching the race weekend with the thought of winning the championship; I just want to do my best regardless of the points gap to the others behind. We’ve seen many times before in motor sport anything can happen, so I’m not counting them out, but I’m not focussed on the people behind,” he said.
“When we are on the circuit we proved many times we can fight quite harsh against each other. I don’t know. We are all trying to achieve the main goal, which is to win the world championship. You can like somebody outside the circuit but I think you have to separate what’s happening on the circuit and what’s happening off the circuit. In the end I expect fair racing, a clean fight and for me this is the most important thing,” Michelisz said.
