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Wet weather set to continue in Moscow

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More rain is forecast for the World Touring Car Championship weekend at Moscow Raceway this weekend, as the sixth round of the championship takes place in what has so far been the wettest season on record.

Although the last races in Germany took place just before the rain fell, affecting the Nürburgring 24 Hours race just two hours later instead, rain has played its part in the Hungarian and Moroccan rounds of the championship, which handed a surprise result to Sébastien Loeb Racing drivers Mehdi Bennani and Tom Chilton at the Hungaroring, and helped neutralise the performance gap between Citroën and Honda in Morocco.

“We’ve never had this in 11 years, with 80 per cent of our races have been wet,” said WTCC promoter Francois Ribeiro. “It’s a bit depressing I must say. When I saw the weather forecast for Saturday and Sunday…in the middle of June you don’t expect this, but anyway it will be a good show and a good TV show but if there is a shop somewhere I can buy dry weather conditions I will pay myself, I promise you.”

Sébastien Loeb Racing Citroën driver Tom Chilton said after his Hungarian podium, rain would probably be his best opportunity, but then settled on a more neutral position when reflecting on his Nürburgring results.

“I was (driving for) ten years in the British Touring Car Championship and I did an awful lot of wet races,” said Chilton. “This year we had a very wet race in Hungary where I went from tenth to second, so I am kind of hoping it’s going to be wet, but after my performance last weekend (in Germany) with my first double podium; a second and a third, that was dry so I’m quite happy for it to be dry. I’m very 50/50, I don’t mind.”

Polestar Cyan Racing have struggled so far in all the wet events so far, with the Swedish team having done all their testing in the dry, so the team’s driver Thed Björk has a more certain view on what weather he’d prefer.

“I have to say with the performance of the Volvo car earlier this year, we’d like to have dry weather actually, but if it gets wet we have another opportunity to develop,” he said. “But I joined the WTCC to go out into the world for the warm weather, because we have all the rain in Sweden all the time and now I would have only sunshine.”

FIA WTCC Race of Russia Timetable

Friday 10th June
12:30 – Testing

Saturday 11th June
09:00 – Free Practice 1
11:30 – Free Practice 2
14:00 – Qualifying
15:00 – MAC3

Sunday 12th June
12:15 – Opening Race (16 Laps)
13:30 – Main Race (17 Laps)