With the LADA SPORT ROSNEFT team reduced to a pair of striking LADA Vesta TC1s for the FIA World Touring Car Championship’s (WTCC) Race of Hungary at the Hungaroring on the outskirts of Budapest (1-3 May), the Russian team was reliant on Rob Huff and Mikhail Kozlovskiy to deliver points.
Both drivers were hoping for good starts, Huff to exploit his solid grid positions and Kozlovskiy to mount a challenge from further back. In the end both were disappointed to be dragged back into the clutches of their rivals, unable to get traction.
In race one Huff was able to fight back and regain ninth position with a move on Tom Coronel’s Chevrolet Cruze, while Kozlovskiy tried to keep in touch, but was hampered by technical issues that would eventually cut his races short.
Huff ran at a consistent pace and, with points on the board, LADA SPORT ROSNEFT turned its attention and hopes to race two, in which Huff would start from an elevated grid position on the second row, alongside reigning Champion Jose Maria Lopez in the Citroen C-Elysee and behind local favourite, Norbert Michelisz.
Again, Huff didn’t get the start he was hoping for and soon found himself in the mix as the cars went side-by-side through the first sequence of corners. The jostling Citroens around him caused a half spin for multiple World Rally Champion, Sebastien Loeb, which resulted in race-ending contact with Huff, an innocent victim of somebody else’s incident.
Kozlovskiy, meanwhile, looked to be faring a little better, although a recurrence of the technical issues from race one saw him return to the pits after a handful of laps.
LADA SPORT ROSNEFT Team Principal, Victor Shapovalov, said: “Clearly not the weekend that the LADA SPORT ROSNEFT team had hoped for in Hungary, but the positive thing is that the pace in qualifying is getting better with every race weekend. We shall emerge stronger for the challenges at Nurburgring and build on the pace the LADA Vesta TC1 clearly has.”
The FIA World Touring Car Championship’s (WTCC) Race of Germany, the much anticipated round on the legendary Nurburgring Nordschlife circuit takes place on 15-16 May.