Russian Mikhail Kozlovskiy scored his first-ever points in the World Touring Car Championship on Sunday, with the LADA driver finishing fifth in the second race in Morocco.
Kozlovskiy scored his first points in a chaotic second race on the streets of Marrakech, which saw an early red flag flown for an incident involving Tom Coronel, Mehdi Bennani and Yvan Muller.
The result comes as a welcome boost to the LADA Sport Lukoil team, who otherwise had a difficult weekend with their new TC1 Granta as Brits Rob Huff and James Thompson took just one race finish between them.
In race two, Kozlovskiy moved up from 13th on the grid to seventh before the race was halted and the Russian managed to hold off a strong challenge from WTCC returnee Gianni Morbidelli to take the chequered flag in sixth, which became fifth after Bennani was excluded from the results.
Kozlovskiy’s fifth-place finish equals the best-ever result for LADA in the WTCC, which first came when team-mate Thompson finished in fifth in Russia in 2013.
“I’m really happy with my top-five finish in the very first round of the season,” said Kozlovskiy. “Both races were really tough and almost all the teams faced various kinds of problems – crashes, technical issues, etc. Luckily, the team kept all three cars safe and sound, which is extremely important with the next round in France so near.
“My personal goal for this weekend in Morocco was to finish both races and avoid any contact that would have damaged the car, but I managed to keep some formidable opponents behind me quite successfully and my pace was stable,” added Kozlovskiy, who had qualified in 14th on Saturday, just three tenths behind former world champion Rob Huff.
“With all of our teething problems solved, we will achieve even more, that’s for sure,” added the 24-year-old. “This is my second visit to the Morocco street circuit, so my knowledge of the track helped a bit, but the high air temperatures made it a real challenge.”