Lada cautiously optimistic for Mexico

Lada’s first ever official FIA World Touring Car Championship race at Curitiba, Brazil, two weeks ago resulted in no points. But the team is still optimistic and are eager to take on the long work of getting up in the result lists.
“I’m really looking forward to the Mexican races. Although we clearly still have some way to go, the opening round showed that we definitely have potential,” said driver Jaap van Lagen.

“It’s our job now to build on that, and I hope that we can use the Puebla races to learn even more about the car and how to get the best out of it.”

Second Lada-driver Kirill Ladygin finished 18th in the first race and 22nd in the second. The Russian is realistic about his expectations.

“With the cars coming straight to Mexico from Brazil, the basic performance is likely to be the same, so we have to be realistic about our expectations. I think though that we have all benefited from being in the race environment just two weeks ago, and I am sure that experience will be very useful to us in Mexico. We’re improving all the time,” said Ladygin.

Viktor Shapovalov finished 17th in the first race and last in the second, but ranked the race as his best ever in WTCC.

“Curitiba was a great weekend for me, as I ended up with my best-ever race result in the WTCC. I’m proud of everything the team has achieved so far. But now of course we have to keep working very hard and we start again from zero in Mexico, as we have to tune into a new track. If we can repeat the same sort of performance as we showed in Curitiba, then I will be very happy,” said Shapovalov.