LADA Sport LUKOIL team scored more points than ever before at the Portuguese round of the FIA World Touring Car Championship in Porto this past weekend. James Thompson placed his LADA Granta sixth in both races to secure 16 Drivers Championship points.
Following his two top-six results, Englishman Thompson has 29 points this year, while LADA Sport LUKOIL outscored its Manufacturers Championship rival Honda by 83 points to 57 at the Circuito da Boavista.
Mikhail Kozlovskiy finished 19th in both races, fighting back through the field admirably after starting from the back of the grid. The Russians LADA Granta was damaged during free practice and he was unable to qualify for the races.
James Thompson: Im really happy with the weekend. It was the best for us in terms of the points. The rounds in Moscow, where we were fifth and here, where we finished sixth in both races, showed that we are already ahead of our goals for the season. Initially we planned to be consistently in the middle of the grid and in the top 10, but now we feel strong enough to be close to top five in each race. This round was not easy: the street circuit, hot temperaturesalmost extreme conditions. In race two, I had to fight hard through the whole race.
Mikhail Kozlovskiy: Starting from the last position in the race on a street circuit is not good for making strong results. Nevertheless, I was able to fight and make some overtaking moves. In the first race, there were some problems with the braking. Before race two, we changed brake pads, shock absorbers and some other parts. The car started to perform better under braking, we could see this from the lap times. The circuit is not simple; the first and the second corners were the hardest for me. It was difficult to accelerate on the exits from these corners. We have to analyse the telemetry data to understand the situation. Hopefully in at the next round in Argentina, I will be able to have better results.
Victor Shapovalov: It was a very positive weekend for us. But, I have to say, when you are getting stronger in the championship of such a high level, its getting more difficult. The level of the leaders is very high and that sets a certain standard. But we are ready for more persistent work! Our optimistic results make our ambitions grow higher. We are ready to fight for the podium this year and I hope that our perfect team work will bring the results!
The next WTCC round is in Argentina (3-4 August).
