Photo: WTCC Media

Mikhail Koslovskiy geared up for WTCC debut

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23-year-old Mikhail Koslovskiy will make his WTCC debut this weekend at Marrakech, as LADA Sport Lukoil return with a pair of repaired Grantas for Koslovskiy and James Thompson.

Both cars were heavily damaged after a crash in qualifying between Aleksei Dudukalo and James Thompson, which saw Dudukalo subsequently dropped from the team and replaced with Koslovskiy, a former Russian Touring Light Championship champion.

Koslovskiy has been on the WTCC paddock, racing in the short-lived WTCC support European Production Series in 2011 in a Lukoil-SUNRED SEAT León Supercopa.

“Of course I’m really looking forward to this weekend, as it’s my first time driving the LADA Granta in the WTCC,” said Koslovskiy. “But it’s not all completely new to me, as I already drove a Granta in touring car races back home in Russia. There’s a lot to get used to with this particular specification of car though. It’s got a new engine and other systems that I have never worked with before, but I don’t think that this will cause me any problems.”

“I’ve got some experience of driving on street circuits from the past, both in Russia and abroad, but Marrakech will be quite different I think. It’s definitely going to be the fastest of the street circuits I have experienced, thanks to all those long straights. Basically, from what I can see, the track is just a series of straights broken up by chicanes. So I’m feeling positive and I can’t wait to get behind the wheel of the Granta.”

Team Principal Viktor Shapovalov is proud of the team’s achievement in repairing both cars in the short two week turnaround since Monza, and is hopeful that the Granta will be on the pace after its impressive showing at Monza on the Saturday.
“This is a fast track with many long straights, just like Monza. If we look back at our results from qualifying at Monza, they were very good with some promising times: especially in the first sector where the Granta was one of the quickest cars. This leads us to hope that the cars will be fast once more this weekend. So let’s wait and see what qualifying brings.”