LADA’s Rob Huff has criticised Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Mehdi Bennani, after the pair clashed in the opening World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) race in Argentina, effectively putting the Brit out for the weekend.
Both LADA drivers were on the receiving end of contact in the opening WTCC race of the season, with Huff’s team-mate James Thompson being collected in the right-rear by Campos Racing’s John Filippi on the first lap of the race.
Just a handful of laps later, Huff himself was collected by Bennani in an almost identical incident, leading to both of the new Vesta WTCC cars returning to the pits with broken right-rear suspension.
After his incident, Huff pointed the blame firmly on Bennani. “He made a bad mess of that race not only for myself but also for Stefano [D’Aste],” explained Huff. “It’s a shame but that’s what happens when you put dull drivers in fast cars. Something’s bent on the back of the car and we won’t have time to fix it for the second race. Perhaps I’ll have to hit him with the rear of my car again.”
Bennani was given a drive-through penalty for the incident, dropping him out of the points in his first race in Citroën machinery.
“I was doing my own race and tried to overtake a lot and what happened after with the stewards I cannot control,” explained Bennani. “He pushed me on the back and I was on the inside [for the corner].”
Although the damage to both cars appeared to be repaired in time for race two, both drivers soon realised that their cars were not fully fixed, with the Brit duo eventually both retiring from the race.
“The LADA Sport Rosneft team were tremendous this weekend, unfortunately the driving standards of some of our colleagues were not quite so impressive!,” added Huff after the day’s racing. “I feel sorry for the guys as they have done a truly tremendous job on the Vesta but I am 100% sure that we will take the benefits from the great work in future races when we get to grips with the car.”
Team Principal Viktor Shapovalov admits that the team were treating the season opener as an extended test session due to only running two cars and having completed limited pre-season mileage.
“We came here without really having the benefit of race information and data on the new cars and were always treating the meeting as an extended test,” explained Shapovalov. “We now have a better idea of where we are against our rivals and the news is good – the Vesta has the speed to be competitive, now we must work on the fine tuning and the reliability to make it into a contender when we take the grid in Marrakesh.”