Mikhail Kozlovskiy secured his second top ten finish of the 2014 World Touring Car Championship during round 10 of the season at the Salzburgring.
Kozlovskiy showed that the five days of testing which the team had partaken in ahead of the trip to Salzburg had helped their progress, even though all three LADA Granta’s failed to reach the second stage of qualifying, with the young Russian and team-mate James Thompson forming up the 9th and final row of the grid after engine change penalties.
2012 Champion Rob Huff lined the third LADA Granta 13th on the grid and the early laps of round 9 saw Huff move up two positions while Thompson made his way up the order to shadow Huff while chasing down Rene Munnich in the All-inkl.com Munnich Motorsport Chevrolet Cruze.
Kozlovskiy, from the back of the grid made progress up the order and followed his LADA team-mates home as they finished in team formation in 12th, 13th and 14th.
Round 10 was over before it began for Thompson and Huff after a startline accident saw the British drivers ruled out on the spot with the cars in the armco barrier.
Kozlovskiy managed to avoid the opening lap carnage to find himself 9th when the race was suspended to allow the marshalls chance to clear up the debris from the startline accident.
Once the race went live again, Kozlovskiy was demoted to tenth but he held on for his second points finish of the season, a result which sees the Russian driver 14th in the Championship ahead of his and the teams’ home race at the Moscow Raceway.
“I was having to push really hard to achieve a points finish today, but it’s a small win for the hard work LADA Sport LUKOIL has put in,” explained Kozlovskiy after the race weekend.
“I lost a lot of ground in the first laps of race one behind the TC2 cars and was unable to challenge my teammates, but the car was quite consistent throughout. The best thing is that I’ve been able to finish both races, which is something I’ve been unable to do for the past two rounds in Hungary and Slovakia,” Kozlovskiy continued
“We started this weekend with problems in free practice and managed them well, so it’s very satisfying to have taken the chequered flag. It’s even more of a relief considering what happened away from the start in race two. It wasn’t easy, because I couldn’t see anything except LADAs spinning in my peripheral vision.
“I’m amazed I was able to avoid the commotion, but we didn’t have the pace to challenge the Chevrolets and Hondas on this high-speed freight train of a circuit,” he concluded.