Three wheels will not do for WTCC ace Michelisz

Norbert Michelisz’s hopes of a strong performance in qualifying for WTCC Race of Argentina ended abruptly when the front-left wheel became detached from his Honda Civic WTCC.

The Hungarian, one of the expected frontrunners in this year’s FIA World Touring Car Championship, was on a flying lap when the incident occurred early in Qualifying Q1.

“I don’t know what happened but I was told it was impossible to carry on,” said Michelisz. “It’s not a nice feeling when you are on a flying lap but what can I do? Before the season I was really optimistic so the last thing you want is the wheel coming off at the first race.”

While it was a case of despair for Michelisz, Rob Huff went fastest in the all-new LADA Vesta TC1 with Mehdi Bennani second, Sébastien Loeb third, Stefano D’Aste fourth, José María López fifth, Tiago Monteiro sixth, Ma Qing Hua seventh, Gabriele Tarquini eighth, Yvan Muller ninth, Tom Chilton 10th, James Thompson 11th and Tom Coronel 12th.

Dušan Borković, Grégoire Demoustier, John Filippi and Rickard Rydell were all eliminated from qualifying along with Michelisz. Hugo Valente was unable to start the session following his crash in Free Practice 2 this morning. Qualifying Q2 is now underway with the fastest five drivers going through to Q3.