Lada drivers both in the points despite qualifying drama

Despite engine problems forcing the team to work all night to work on their Vesta WTCCs, further compounded by additional technical issues in the warm-up, both Rob Huff and Jaap van Lagen scored vital points for Lada Sport Rosneft on race day at the Nürburgring.

Although the first race lasted less than a lap for Huff following contact with Hugo Valente’s Campos Chevrolet, the Briton bounced back to finish seventh in race two, equalling the team’s best result of the season so far.

“The car was lovely to drive and gave me the chance to race with confidence, I had great battles with (Tom) Coronel, (Sébastien) Loeb and others and kept it clean and tidy when others didn’t to get the car home for a good result,” said Huff.

Jaap van Lagen, returning to Lada Sport and the WTCC after a six year absence, grabbed a lot of attention in race one as he battled Münnich Motorsport’s Sabine Schmitz for the bulk of the first race for the final points-paying position, eventually missing out but then claimed tenth in race two, putting his name on the scoreboard on his WTCC return.

“It’s great to come back to the Lada Sport fold,” said van Lagen. “The car in the races was excellent, really driveable and it’s great to score some points on my WTCC return.”

After a night of hard work, and uncertainty over whether they’d be able to make the race following continued technical issues since qualifying on Friday evening through to the warm-up on Saturday morning, team principal Viktor Shapovalov was delighted with the day’s results.

“It was a very big effort to be ready to start but the team worked well to get the cars to the grid and we decided that we would race and things turned out better than we could have realistically hoped for,” he said. “We learned some new things that we now can address and come to the Moscow Round strong and ready to challenge.”