Unknown engine problem hits both Ladas on Nordschleife debut

The two Lada Sport Rosneft Vestas of Rob Huff and Jaap van Lagen met a quick end in qualifying for the WTCC round at the Nürburgring Nordschliefe, with van Lagen’s car crawling back to the pits and with Rob Huff stopping on track after setting the 13th fastest time.

The team are investigating the issue, which is believed to have been the same problem on both cars. Due to the qualifying rules, Huff will start tenth for race one following engine change penalties for John Filippi, Tom Coronel and Mehdi Bennani ahead of him, unless the team have to change his engine as well, while van Lagen will start last on the grid in 17th after not having set a time.

“The engine (just) stopped,” said Huff to TouringCarTimes. “It’s different to normal, it didn’t go bang, it just went tight and decided it didn’t want to go any further.”

Before that, Huff had good pace in the Vesta WTCC, and believes the car had the potential to make the top five in qualifying.

“We had a purple sector on the Grand Prix track then lost just six-tenths to López in sector two and seven-tenths in sector three, so I believe there was a 8:40, maybe an 8:39 in the car.”

Looking ahead to tomorrow’s races, where Huff will have to fight his way forward, the 2012 champion added:

“We’ve been quickest all day in the straight, and on the straight we’re not anywhere near out of revs so there’s quite a lot we can gain in a slipstream. It’s one of those places where anything can happen, we could stay 13th, we might gain a few, no one’s ever experienced what we’re doing here so we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”