Nicky Catsburg hoping for rain on Sunday in “struggling” Lada

Lada Sport’s Nicky Catsburg is the best-placed of the three Lada Vesta WTCCs in Japan after qualifying in seventh position, but believes the cars will continue to struggle on race day unless the projected rain arrives.

Practice and qualifying took place in sizzling conditions at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit, with Catsburg the only one of the three Lada drivers to break out of the first part in qualifying after a strategic error by the team saw them leave Hugo Valente and Gabriele Tarquini in the pits, confident that their first run was sufficient enough to get them into the top 12.

Catsburg then produced a time 1.1 seconds from pace-setter José María López to qualify in seventh position the main race, where he’ll be sandwiched between the two Polestar Volvos of Thed Björk and Néstor Girolami for the two starts.

“I’m happy as after practice we knew it was going to be hard,” said Catsburg to TouringCarTimes. “Our first goal was to get into Q2, and then get into the top ten, so I’m happy that we managed to do that.

“But I think we will struggle as much as we did in Argentina, but at least this time we’re a further up front so are able to finish a bit further up,” he added. “Also, it may rain tomorrow, and if it rains it’s a new circumstance for everyone and it would be good for us I think if we’re as fast as we were in Moscow.”

The Dutch driver missed out on making the top-five shootout by three-tenths of a second, and believed it was possible, but about as far as the Lada Vesta would have been able to achieve this weekend.

“I think if I put everything together I might have been around P5 or P6, and we probably should have just stayed in the pits and settled for P8, but qualifying is for qualifying and I like to see what I can do and not focus on the reversed grid,” he said.