Honda believe the Moscow Raceway will be more suitable for the Civic

After the challenge of the Nürburging Nordschleife, the FIA World Touring Car Championship heads to a completely different kind of circuit this weekend with the Moscow Raceway, and Honda are hoping the upgrades which helped carry Zengő Motorsport’s Norbert Michelisz to victory at the Hungaroring will figure well in Russia.

The Civic finished on the podium last season in the hands of Gabriele Tarquini, who split the much fancied Citroëns of José María López and Sébastien Loeb in the first race, and hopes the characteristics will suit the upgraded Civic which was closer to the Citroëns at the Nordschelife three weeks’ ago.

“Last year our Civic was very good in terms of performance,” said Tarquini. “The characteristics of the Moscow circuit are normally good for our car. It is a modern track with a lot of medium-slow corners and change of directions. The top-speed is not as important as in the Nürburgring and I think we must focus on qualification because the grid position will be very important – overtaking can be very hard in the races.”

Tarquini’s team-mate Tiago Monteiro currently sits fourth in the standings, the closest challenge to the three Citroëns of José María López, Sébastien Loeb and Yvan Muller, though is only nine points ahead of the fourth factory Citroën of Ma Qing Hua, and is hoping for a competitive showing in Russia.

“Moscow is a totally different challenge to what we had so far,” he said. “It’s a newer track with lots of different types of corners and quite a smooth surface. It has only one long straight. We fared quite well last year so we’re hoping the evolution to this year’s Civic WTCC will enable us to be even more competitive this time round.”