LADA Sport have officially withdrawn from the opening round of the World Touring Car Championship at Monza, citing massive damage to both cars as a result of the team’s qualifying crash as the cause.
During qualifying, Russian Aleksei Dudukalo missed his braking point heading into the first chicane, locking his brakes and slamming into the side of team-mate James Thompson.
Whilst Dudukalo was out on the spot, Thompson managed to crawl back to the pits for preliminary repairs which allowed him to post a time in Q2 to provisionally qualify in ninth. However the team have inspected the damage overnight and found massive roll cage damage to Thompson’s car.
The team have informed the stewards that Thompson’s car is therefore not fit to race, whilst Dudukalo’s car cannot be repaired due to significant front suspension damage which cannot be repaired at the track.
Dudukalo’s participation at the next event in Morocco has not been confirmed by the Russian team.