LADA drivers Nicky Catsburg and Rob Huff have criticised the driving standards in the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) in Shanghai, after both drivers suffered retirements as a result of contact with their competitors.
Huff was forced out of the opening race after contact from the Honda of Gabriele Tarquini at turn two on the opening lap. As Tarquini exited the corner he pushed Huff wide, with the duo making side-by-side contact which broke Huff’s rear suspension.
The LADA team worked to repair Huff’s car for race two, in which he fought his way to a fifth-place finish for a solid points-scoring result.
“He [Tarquini] must have pushed me five times before he finally broke the car by driving into the side of me,” exclaimed Huff. “However, we had two top five finishes, which is a good result. A Vesta at the front of the grid in almost every race means that we have made big progress since the start of the season.
“The weekend was full of positive emotions as we received a hearty and warm welcome by our guests and sponsors. It was very nice to see a lot of people wearing our team’s clothes all around the paddock!”
Catsburg went one better than Huff, finishing fourth in race one after having earlier scored LADA’s best-ever race one grid position by going third in qualifying.
However for the Dutchman his good luck would end after race one, as contact with Norbert Michelisz and Qing Hua Ma in race two caused suspension damage to his own car.
“I think I drove a great race and qualifying this weekend, it’s a shame we didn’t get to show better than P4 as I think we deserved more,” said a frustrated Catsburg. “I am surprised at the sporting behaviour of some of the guys out there, who are trying to go three abreast everywhere banging into each other and trying to go through where there is no room to do so.
“However, it was a nice weekend, I am thankful to our guests and representatives of our sponsor Rosneft, who supported us today!”
The third car of Frenchman Nicolas Lapierre at first scored two solid points finishes with seventh and ninth in races one and two respectively. However he was subsequently excluded from the race one results for having run with a turbo charger pressure above 2.5 bar.
“[It was] very tough out there today,” admitted Lapierre. “I had trouble getting the car right in practice and found it rough in the races. [Tom] Chilton came from nowhere to destroy the back of my car and I was lucky to make the finish after a great race with Michelisz.
“I am happy to score some more points during my second only WTCC racing weekend”.
Despite the damage, Team Principal Victor Shapovalov remained optimistic, citing the close racing on show for the Chinese spectators, adding: “Touring car racing was back as it used to be today, which is good for excitement for the spectators, but it’s not so good for the damage to the cars!”