Nicky Catsburg calls for action after lap one crash in Qatar

Lada Sport’s Nicky Catsburg says the stewards need to take action in future against incidents at the start of the race, after the Dutch driver was taken out at the start of race two in Losail which also saw Münnich Motorsport’s Stefano D’Aste eliminated from the race.

Catsburg was up to fifth at the start of the reversed grid race, but had suffered damage after contact from the Citroën C-Elysée WTCC of Sébastien Loeb. The damaged Vesta of Catsburg was then collected by D’Aste’s Chevrolet Cruze, with Tom Chilton in the ROAL Chevrolet also forced to take avoiding action.

“I had the best start of my season, and into Turn 1 I was P5, and then into Turn 4 someone hit me from behind really hard,” said Catsburg to TouringCarTimes.

“It was such a big hit, I think it was (Sébastien) Loeb, but nothing ever gets done, everyone just slams into each other, which only invites for it to happen again.

“After that I was trying to keep my car over to the right and just park it as I knew my race was over, and then (Stefano) D’Aste hit me, obviously it was not his fault.”

The Dutch driver had a consistent run to ninth in race one after a poor start, and finished 12th in the standings after only competing in two-thirds of the season, and says signs are positive looking ahead to next year, where he hopes to return if only with a partial season with Lada.

“I’m happy we had good race pace, qualifying is going good, my starts are better, so If I come back next year, which I really want to, we have a good starting point.

“I need to work out some clashes which I will know later, there aren’t so many, the calendars are pretty positive for me, so we’ll see.”