LADA scored its best-ever result in qualifying for the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) in Russia, with Rob Huff also getting through to Q3 for the first time with the marque.
Huff qualified in fourth for race one, earning the marque their best-ever starting position for race one in a WTCC weekend. At the same time, Dutch duo Nick Catsburg and Jaap van Lagen both made it through to Q2 for the first time, giving the manufacturer three cars in Q2 for the first time.
Speaking at the post-qualifying press conference, Huff praised the team for how far they have come since he joined the team at the start of 2014.
“This is the result of the efforts of LADA, Rosneft and the Lada Sport team and shows that we have an excellent car,” said Huff. “The car felt great throughout practice and the improvements and development that the team have made are starting to reap results.
“This is Lada Sport’s best qualifying result ever and to do it here in Moscow is special for me and for the Lada Sport Rosneft Team.”
Huff also made reference to a number of updates which the team have applied to the car for the manufacturer’s home event, despite experiencing an alternator issue in the earlier practice sessions.
“For the first time the car has been where it should be,” added Huff. “The pace of the car has been really good all weekend, the balance of the car has been really good and we’ve made some updates to the car before we came here. We’ve stiffened the car up so we’re going in the right direction and ultimately we’ve put in a much better performance in qualifying.”
LADA sport Team Principal Viktor Shapovalov professed to being speechless after the qualifying session.
“I almost have no words for this,” said Shapovalov. “We have been building in the team with small steps from the start of this project and these small steps have realized a big move forward now.
“A few more small steps are needed and we will be where we want to be with this LADA Sport Rosneft Vesta car.”