FIA World Touring Car Championship team LADA SPORT RPSNEFT and its trio of Lada Vesta TC1 cars had mixed fortunes in Qualifying for the Race of Japan at the Twin Ring Motegi Circuit 150kms North West of Tokyo, but emerged satisfied with a Race 2 front row start.

Fielding a new driver line up that included French Champion driver and 2015 Le Mans winner Nicolas Lapierre alongside Nicky Catsburg fresh from his own success winning the Spa 24 hours and regular ex WTCC World Champion Rob Huff, the LADA SPORT ROSNEFT team could arguably have their strongest line up in their WTCC history so it was a surprise when Huff was eliminated from the first qualifying session failing to make the TOP-12 cut.

Catsburg, knowing that an engine change enforced after his heavy accident last time out in the WTCC Race of Portugal would see him start Race 1 at the back of the field irrespective of his performance today employed a strategy to target 10th spot offering him the strongest chance of victory in Race 2 and to the delight of the team he delivered to perfection and originally qualified 10th take up first place on the grid for tomorrows second outing. However the stewards later penalized the Chevrolet driver Tom Chilton and his penalty “promoted” Carsburg to 9th and P2 on the starting grid.

Almost equally as pleasing for the team was the impressive debut from Lapierre who put in a competent lap to progress out of Q1 at the first time of asking but was unlucky to finally qualify 11th, the starting position he will take up for both of the 13 lap races tomorrow (13th September).

A delighted Catburg was pleased to have accomplished his target “I knew that there was little point in pushing my way up the grid too far as it would have only made race 2 more difficult so to have finished where we aimed for and have a front row start gives me a real chance of my first WTCC podium” said the Dutchman.

Huff who as the most experienced driver on the grid knows that there are days like this in motorsport when things don’t go quite as planned “We lost some running in practice which put us behind in our programme and I went into qualifying without having the opportunity to try he set up we had. As it proved it was costly as the car did not behave as I would have wanted and we have some work to do to find out why. I’ve got some hard work to put in in the races tomorrow but will give it my best shot and get some points if I can” said Huff.

Lapierre who had not driven a Touring Car in competition until this weekend was pleased with how he had adapted “I did a good lap in Q1 to be solidly inside the TOP 10 which I was really pleased with, now I’ve got to adapt quickly into racing with the experienced touring car drivers around me but I am really looking forward to it” said the French winner of the Le Mans 24 hours.

Tomorrow’s two 13 lap races take place at 14.15 and 15.25 on Sunday 13th September Japanese time which is 7 hours ahead of CET at the Twin Ring Motegi racetrack, Japan and will be broadcast on Eurosport and streamed LIVEe on the web at www.eurosport.com.