LADA Sport trio Rob Huff, Nicky Catsburg and Jaap van Lagen all declared themselves to be happy after qualifying for the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) in Slovakia, with the trio securing the manufacturer’s best-ever qualifying result.
Just two weeks after having scored the previous best-ever qualifying result for LADA, the manufacturer’s drivers have gone even better. For the first time in the Russian manufacturer’s history two of its cars made it through to Q3, with Huff and Catsburg qualifying in fourth and fifth positions respectively.
To make things even sweeter, Dutch driver Van Lagen secured pole position for race two by qualifying in tenth, giving LADA strong prospects in both of Sunday’s races.
“In all [it was] a very satisfying and successful day for LADA Sport Rosneft, with all of our drivers performing and getting great results,” summarised Team Principal Victor Shapovalov.
As the best of the trio, Brit Huff equalled his best qualifying performance of the season, having also been fourth at LADA’s home race in Moscow.
“We tried our very best today but couldn’t quite beat P4, but we were very close and getting closer all the time,” said Huff. “The car is now reliable and consistent and it’s allowing myself and the engineers to work on things to make the car quicker each race and I think that’s starting to show in our results.
“Like in Moscow I think we will have strong race pace and be in a position to challenge for the podium in both of tomorrows races.”
Catsburg is only contesting his second-ever WTCC meeting, and admits that making it through to Q3 was a surprise for himself.
“I am super happy to have made Q3 and it was totally unexpected really as the weekend had got off to a slow start,” said the Dutchman. “It’s got stronger as the sessions go on and in the end I’m a bit disappointed with my single flying lap as I think I could have been P4 or even P3 if I had hooked it up.
“I am getting more comfortable with driving the car each time I get in but it is still a strange environment for me to get used. My technique is coming together and I am hoping that I can learn more in the races tomorrow”.
Although Van Lagen secured himself a first-ever front row start, having only once previously started a WTCC race from inside the top ten, he professed to being slightly disappointed with his qualifying result.
“Of course I am very happy that I have race two pole position,” said Van Lagen. “I hope to turn it into a result for myself and the LADA Sport Rosneft team but I could have been better than P10 today if it was not for my small mistake where I ran wide.”