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LADA endures disappointing Paul Ricard weekend

LADA Sport drivers Rob Huff, Jaap van Lagen and Nicky Catsburg experienced a ‘disappointing’ World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) weekend at Circuit Paul Ricard in France, as only Van Lagen managed to score points.

Rob Huff retired from race one due to damage sustained in an incident with Grégoire Demoustier, which then prevented the Brit from taking the start in race two as his LADA Sport team ran out of time to repair the broken suspension on his Vesta car.

Huff, who had struggled for pace in qualifying prior to race day, admits that his weekend was disappointing due to the stark comparison with recent strong performances in Russia and Slovakia.

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“I really haven’t done a whole lot of meaningful laps this weekend which after recent results is disappointing,” said Huff. “When you start back in the pack with the less experienced drivers you will encounter problems.

“I think he [Demoustier] just didn’t see me alongside in the frantic corners following the start and just turned in on me. From then I was a passenger in a spinning car that had broken steering and suspension.”

Dutchman Van Lagen was thus the team’s best performer in Sunday’s races, finishing tenth in race one to take home the only point for the manufacturer. Race two saw Van Lagen just miss out on the points in 11th.

“The car had a good balance in race one but really lacked traction and this caused wheel spin and harmed the tyres, so it was very hard to push or defend out of the slower corners,” explained Van Lagen, who blamed the high temperatures for his and the team’s lack of performance. “It was very hot and tenth place was the best we could do today.

“I had to work really hard in race two and had some good battles but was powerless to defend for the entire race.”

Like Huff, Nicky Catsburg also failed to take the start of one of the races, although the Dutchman missed out on starting race one due to problems with his starter motor rather than contact with a competitor. However the struggles of the team at the south of France circuit were highlighted in race two, as Catsburg could only manage a pointless 12th place finish.

“This was a really tough weekend for me,” added Catsburg. “After the weighing issue in qualifying and then being unable to start race one things weren’t really going for me.

“I am grateful to the mechanics for getting me to the grid for race two but I wasn’t really able to make much of it as the car just wasn’t suited to the conditions at all and I had a very hard race.”

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