Nicky Catsburg emerged as the leading LADA driver after qualifying for the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) at the Twin Ring Motegi in Japan, putting his Vesta on the front row of the grid for race two.
Catsburg qualified in ninth position, promoted one place after ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Chilton later had his lap time disallowed, to secure second on the grid for race two on Sunday.
The Dutchman admitted after qualifying that he was aiming to maximise his chances in the reverse grid race, and is optimistic of claiming a maiden podium finish.
“I knew that there was little point in pushing my way up the grid too far as it would have only made race two more difficult,” explained Catsburg. “To have finished where we aimed for and have a front row start gives me a real chance of my first WTCC podium.”
There were mixed fortunes in the rest of the LADA garage, however, as débutant Nicolas Lapierre missed out on the benefit of the reverse grid and qualified in 11th position.
“I did a good lap in Q1 to be solidly inside the top ten, which I was really pleased with,” said the Frenchman. “Now I’ve got to adapt quickly into racing with the experienced touring car drivers around me but I am really looking forward to it.”
Rob Huff, as the team’s most experienced driver, missed out on entry into Q2 for the third time in succession, making it also the third meeting in a row where he has been out-qualified by both of his team-mates.
“We lost some running in practice which put us behind in our programme and I went into qualifying without having the opportunity to try he set up we had,” explained Huff, who experienced a fuel pick-up problem in second practice. “As it proved it was costly as the car did not behave as I would have wanted and we have some work to do to find out why.
“I’ve got some hard work to put in in the races tomorrow but will give it my best shot and get some points if I can.”