Damaging day for Lada and Honda at Vila Real

The Honda Civic of Tiago Monteiro sustained heavy damage following a crash at the start of the second race involving the two Ladas of Nicky Catsburg and Jaap van Lagen, while Catsburg also ran into trouble later on, caught in an incident with Citroën’s Sébastien Loeb and Zengo’s Norbert Michelisz, before crashing out and causing a red flag, with Catsburg’s Vesta likely to miss the boat to the next round at Motegi.

Monteiro’s car was damaged after it was spun out in front of Jaap van Lagen’s Lada at the start as the Portuguese driver tried to pass the two Lada Vestas which launched off from the second row of the grid in front of him.

“Fortunately I did a really good start, which maybe was the problem actually, because I went for the middle of the two Ladas,” said Monteiro. “Initially they didn’t really move, but once they realised when they were slow they started to move quite slowly in the same direction.

“It’s one of those things, it’s a street track there’s not a lot of room. They each tried to move a little bit and I was there in the middle. It was too late to back off and I thought maybe we’d just touch a little bit, but unfortunately I got wheel-to-wheel with Jaap on the right, and it broke my wheel and I just went straight into the wall.”

Van Lagen’s car was also eliminated from the race, with the Dutch driver rueing the opportunity to score a potential podium result at the hard-to-pass circuit.

“The damage is not so bad, it looks worse than it is,” said van Lagen to TouringCarTimes.

“The start wasn’t good, but that’s always the way with our cars. The Honda of Monteiro came between us; I didn’t move to the left, I stayed on a straight line, Nicky came a little bit to the right, and Monteiro took a lot of risk to go between us. There was a gap of course, but the gap was very narrow, and you know it could happen that we could touch each other and it’s over, but he touched Catsburg first and then he came across onto the wheel of my car.

“I think a podium was possible today. I was a bit quicker than the other Ladas in the first race, and I think if I could have taken my third place I think they couldn’t have passed me.”

Catsburg was later involved in an incident involving Zengo’s Norbert Michelisz and Citroën’s Sébastien Loeb before the final chicane, which saw Loeb try to dart around the outside while Catsburg was being passed down the inside by Michelisz.

“The overtake with Nicky was quite on the edge,” said Michelisz. “I saw Gabriele overtaking him just before the last chicane, and I tried the same move. I was very close to the wall on the inside and at one point I think we were three cars side-by-side, but I felt I had the inside line, I was in front, but I think we somehow got together as I felt a big hit on my rear but I was fortunate enough to collect the car and do the last chicane.”

Catsburg then collected the wall at Turn 7 after hitting the inside of the corner and crashed into the barrier, sustaining significant damage to the front-right wheel.

Lada are already having to rearrange plans to freight the car to the next round of the championship at Motegi next week in order to rebuild the car.

The incidents between Monteiro, van Lagen and Catsburg, and between Michelisz, Loeb and Catsburg are all under investigation by the stewards. Catsburg was unavailable for comment after having to leave the circuit after visiting the stewards office.