The 2024 season of the TCR World Series reached its halfway point this weekend: the fourth stop of the seven-round championship was Interlagos, which also hosts the Formula 1 Sao Paulo Grand Prix, where the field returned after a six-week break.
The extra weight system turned out to be unfavorable for Hyundai, so Norbert Michelisz, who led the points race, already on Saturday was aiming for the pole position with the reverse grid. He earned it thanks to a 10th place finish in a chaotic qualifying session interrupted by a red flag due to a huge crash, which gave Lynk&Có’s Santiago Urrutia the lead.
However, the Uruguayan lost the lead at the start, which Esteban Guerrieri benefited from, as in the end the Argentinian was the first to see the checkered flag – Urrutia was second behind him, and Italian Marco Butti was third. Michelisz also won a lot at the start, improving three positions, and then overtook Néstor Girolami after the safety car sent to the track at the end of the first lap drove out in front of the field, i.e. he finished in sixth place.
Taking advantage of the reversed starting grid, Michelisz won the valuable points with his second victory of the year on the Brazilian asphalt strip with a long history. He was successful from start to finish, but Ma Ching-hua made sure that he did not have an easy time by pressing him non-stop until the last stage of the race. However, later – probably yielding to the will of the team – he allowed his two Lynk&Có teammates, Thed Björk and Urrutia, to join him. Despite this, he was finally able to stand on the podium, as the Uruguayan driver was penalized for overtaking outside the track.
Michelisz took the cup for first place with his race engineer Dániel Borisov. (Photo: Hyundai Motorsport)
It is particularly good news for the defending champion and two-time champion that his main rival, Yann Ehrlacher, got a clean sheet after crashing with Girolami and one of the local riders, Raphael Reiss, in the first round. Michelisz’s lead increased to 15 points in composite, but Guerrieri is no longer in second place, but Ehrlacher. The sequel will be in Uruguay in two weeks.
Source: www.vezess.hu
