Lada pleased with season debut

The Russian car manufacturer Lada completed its first FIA World Touring Car Championship race at Curitiba in Brazil this weekend. Jaap van Lagen finished 15th in the first race and 17th in the second race and was pleased.
“It was really good fun, although often I couldn’t see where I was going at all,” said the Dutchman.

The second race was started behind the safety car due to heavy rain and the windscreen wipers malfunctioned for van Lagen.

“There was a lot of water during the first few laps but I was quite surprised by just how quickly it dried up. Because we were on wet tyres and didn’t have the top speed we needed down the straight it was hard for us to compete, but we still surpassed our expectations.

Our personal fastest lap was only just over a second slower than the fastest race lap so I’m happy. That wouldn’t have happened last year, so it shows that the new engine has already brought us some progress.”

Kirill Ladygin also struggled with visibility and power steering problems, ending the wet race in 22nd place.

“It’s certainly a lot more difficult than it is in the dry, but given that we started at the back we have to be happy,” said the Russian. “The main thing is that I have learned a lot this weekend. I really enjoyed the first race: I had a good battle with my team mate Viktor and I think that we showed some promising speed. Now we just have to work hard to improve it for the rest of the year.”

The third Lada-driver Viktor Shapovalov was 23rd at the end of race two, having run wide in the slippery conditions. ”

Like a few people, I did a bit of rallycrossing! I think we can all be proud of ourselves on this historic weekend though, which marked only our first participation in the FIA World Touring Car Championship as an official manufacturer.

First and foremost, we had three cars safely at the finish of each race. We also enjoyed perfect reliability, and some of our lap times underlined the potential that is to come. Now we’re looking forward to Mexico!”