Lada struggle on Slovakian debut

LADA Sport LUKOIL have had a tough first day at the Slovakiaring, with James Thompson qualifying in 15th place (starting 14th for race one after Rob Huff’s penalty) and Mikhail Koslovskiy down in 21st position.

After strong performances at Monza and Marrakech, after a 20kg drop in compensation weight for this weekend more was perhaps expected of the two Lada Grantas at the circuit, but with neither Thompson or Kozlovskiy having any experience of the tricky Slovakian circuit has worked against the Russian team this weekend.

“This circuit, with its wide variety of technical challenges, is all-new to us and we’ve never even tested the car here,” said Thompson. “In fact, it’s quite different to anywhere else I have ever driven, particularly Monza and Marrakesh, which formed the two opening rounds of the FIA WTCC this year.

“It’s certainly unique and we’ll have to change the car set-up a bit to suit the track better. However, I’ve got plenty of ideas after driving it today so we’re going to have a good think now about the strategy for tomorrow’s race. I hope we should be a bit faster then, but for now we need to concentrate on improving the balance. After looking at the telemetry in detail, I think we should be able to get there.”

Thompson’s team-mate Mikhail Kozlovskiy was confident of progress on race day in the Granta Sport.

“After free practice and qualifying I’ve learnt a lot more about the circuit,” he said. “We need to keep working on the balance. In particular we need to find the best set-up to get the best exit out of all the long corners.

“This is a more revealing circuit than Marrakesh when it comes to evaluating our chassis, and we also need to improve the steering. At the moment it’s a question of trying to combine testing with the races, because during each session we’re trying new parts and details all the time. But with every session we’re making a step forward and that is the main thing.”