WTCC in Oschersleben. "Monster" performance of the Lada Priora.
In the ninth round of the World Touring Car Championship, held at the German circuit of Oschersleben over the weekend of the 5th and 6th September, Lada Priora clearly demonstrated the validity of the technical development carried out on the Russian official car by HRS Motorsport.
The technical and strategic management of the HRS’ CEO Marco Calovolo, in spite of the temporary absence of James Thompson (due to concomitant engagements in the Australian V8 Supercar) enabled the really aggressive Dutch driver Jaap van Lagen to obtain an historic fourth place in the grid at the end of the planned qualifying rounds: the best performance ever achieved by the official Lada Team during all its racing participations in the WTCC. The result is due both to the sharp-witted choice of the set up and the particular weather conditions used in the best way by the Team with a particularly well-aimed choice of the tires.
Run under completely dry conditions, Race 1 confirmed the competitiveness of the Lada Priora, thanks to the fifth position overall stubbornly maintained by Van Lagen already from the first corner, where a awkward bumper-to-bumper crash caused by the Cruze Chevrolet of Nicola Larini (later penalized by the Stewards for the manifest rules’ breach of his maneuvering) relegated the red saloon car in 10th place overall, unfortunately out of the achievement of those who were going to be the first points for the Lada Team. In any case it was the best placing ever achieved in a race.
In Race 2, being the possibility of starting in the second row lost because of the incident happened with Larini in the first Race, the engine supports revealed damages which affected negatively the performance of the Lada Priora making Van Lagen gradually drifting in the standings down to the 20th position.
The question is: what would have been able to do the really aggressive James Thompson with a Priora made so competitive by HRS Motorsport? This curiosity will be satisfied on the 19th and 20th September for the tenth and the third last round of the WTCC
