‘Unsporting behaviour’ costs Lada Sport points in Shanghai
Lada Sport Rosneft had a weekend of mixed emotions in Shanghai, host of the tenth round of the 2015 FIA WTCC season. The Russian outfit scored some points, but incidents in both races prevented them from a bigger harvest.
The rescheduled qualifying session saw Nicky Catsburg finishing in a promising third position, with Rob Huff in sixth and Nico Lapierre in 12th.
At the start of Race 1, Nicky Catsburg was overtaken by two Citroëns, but managed to stay out of trouble, defending fourth position until the end of the race. Worse luck went Huff’s way, with the Briton being hit by Gabriele Tarquini in the opening stages of the race, causing a broken suspension in the Vesta WTCC and forcing the former champion to retire. Nico Lapierre was hit by Tom Chilton and, although he was able to continue, the Frenchman sustained damages in his car.
The mechanics at Lada Sport worked quickly to repair Huff’s car in time for the second race. However, Race 2 wasn’t exempt from trouble for the Russian squad. This time, it would be Catsburg suffering damage from collisions with Ma Qing Hua and Norbert Michelisz, having to retire at the end of the first lap. Rob Huff drove a tidy race to be fifth, whilst Nico Lapierre scored points in ninth position.
Nicky Catsburg was happy after showing himself as the fastest of the three Vestas on track, but as unimpressed with driving standards: “I think I drove a great race and qualifying this weekend, it’s a shame we didn’t get to show better than P4 as I think we deserved more. I am surprised at the sporting behaviour of some of the guys out there, who are trying to go three abreast everywhere banging into each other and trying to go through where there is no room to do so. However, it was a nice weekend, I am thankful to our guests and representatives of our sponsor Rosneft.”
Rob Huff had also a reason to complain after his incident in Race 1, but was positive about the overall outcome of the weekend: “He must have pushed me five times before he finally broke the car by driving into the side of me! However, we had two top five finishes, which is a good result. Vesta in the front of the grid almost in every race means that we made a big progress since the start of the season. The weekend was full of positive emotions as we received a hearty and warm welcome by our guests and sponsors.”
Team principal Victor Shapovalov thought the show was good for the spectators, but wasn’t happy with the consequences for his men: “Touring car racing was back as it used to be today, which is good for excitement for the spectators, but its not so good for the damage to the cars!”
Next for the WTCC is the race of Thailand, in five weeks’ time.
