Mikhail Grachev awaiting new Volkswagen Golf

Mikhail Grachev did not have a good weekend in Monza, Italy. Despite conquering the reversed-grid pole position, the Russian failed to start from there in the second heat due to the contact he made with Craft-Bamboo Lukoil’s Sergey Afanasyev.

“I made contact with a friend, so that makes it even worse,” commented the Liqui Moly Team Engstler driver to TouringCarTimes. “I had a good start but after a couple of laps I lost contact, I was not aggressive enough because I had Race 2 in mind. I was ninth and Sergey (Afanasyev) missed a gear, I just went on the inside and ended up in the grass. At that point there was nothing I could do and that was it, my race was over.”

The Russian tried to take his SEAT León Racer back to the pits, but he couldn’t and therefore lost his pole position for Race 2: “I tried to bring the car back to the pits, but I couldn’t because the temperatures were sky high, so I decided to stop the car. That meant I lost my pole position and had to start from the pit lane, which was a shame. The team did a great job repairing the car, but starting from the pits I was alone and not able to use any slipstreams, so I could not catch the group.”

Grachev is now waiting for the new Volkswagen Golf to come, although he is still unsure as to when it is going to hit the track: “I hope we will have the new Volkswagen ready for my home race in Sochi (next month), but all I know is that it is coming at some point during the season. It will have a lot of parts in common with the SEATs, except of course the bodywork, so maybe it will be a little better in terms of aerodynamics.”

The Russian wouldn’t mind using the current DSG gearbox rather than the racing version which is being developed by SEAT: “There is a lot of talking about this new gearbox, but to be honest I don’t think the DSG is too bad. Of course, from a driver’s point of view, I would be very happy to have a sequential, but I think that having a racing gearbox is not exactly what this championship is about. It is about keeping the costs down, so there is no point spending money to have a racing gearbox. To be honest, I can’t complain about the DSG. Maybe it’s a bit too heavy, so if something can be done to that respect I will be even happier.”

Mikhail Grachev is now tenth in the standings, with 34 points to his name.