Mikhail Kozlovskiy has said he is sorry for the shunt in the second World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) race in Marrakech, where the Russian crashed heavily into team-mate Rob Huff.
In race two, Kozlovskiy locked his brakes approaching the hairpin on the opening lap and speared into the back of team-mate Huff, forcing both men out of the race. The circuit is notoriously hard on brakes due to its long straights and sharp corners, with Kozlovskiy alluding to some issues with his own brakes which may have caused the shunt.
“I am sorry that our races ended this way, I had been having some difficulties with the brakes in race one as this track is very punishing [on brakes],” said Kozlovskiy. “I had made a great start and was right with Rob on the opening lap but as I came into the braking zone for the hairpin I did all I could to avoid the impact but was unable to do so”.
Despite the impact, Huff remained positive about his and the weekend’s performances, which saw the Brit retrospectively score the team’s first points of the season in race one with tenth after Tom Chilton was given a post-race penalty for an earlier incident.
“It was a hard fought race on the Moroccan streets today, the temperatures, bumpy track and heavy braking zones making it a tough afternoons work,” said Huff. “I am really happy to have got our Lada Vesta into the top ten so early in its development process”.
James Thompson followed Huff home in 11th in the first race before finishing tenth in race two, which later became seventh after a raft of post-race penalties were applied to Norbert Michelisz, Hugo Valente and Mehdi Benanni ahead.
“I am proud that Rob and I have got the first points for the Vesta,” said Thompson. “While it’s not as much as we ultimately want to deliver it’s a solid reward for the amount of effort that everybody has put in over the past months to bring this project to the grid”.
As a result of his points in race two, Thompson moves up to 11th in the drivers’ championship on six points.