Norbert Michelisz

Nicky Catsburg has claimed pole position for the sixth round of the 2016 World Touring Car Championship at Moscow Raceway in a very wet qualifying session, with the Lada Vestas stunning in the wet conditions at their home circuit. Catsburg’s team-mates Gabriele Tarquini and Hugo Valente completed the top three, while championship leader José María López missed out on the top five.

Rain had begun to fall even more heavily ahead of qualifying, which worked against the Volvo S60s of Polestar Cyan Racing, with both Thed Björk and Fredrik Ekblom failing to get through into the second part of qualifying. Meanwhile Catsburg was already demonstrating stunning pace in the wet, topping the times in Q1 ahead of Citroën’s José María López.

In the second part of qualifying, as the times tumbled, Honda and Citroën found themselves fighting just to make the top ten while the three Ladas led the way, with Catsburg again fastest ahead of team-mates Tarquini and Valente.

Rob Huff was struggling for grip in the Honda Civic, and missed the top ten following a late improvement for the Chevrolet of Tom Coronel, banishing the Brit down to 11th for both races, while team-mate Tiago Monteiro found himself tenth due to traffic on the circuit, securing the reversed grid pole for the opening race.

José María López was the fastest of the Citroëns in Q2, but qualifying sixth means the Argentinian missed the top five shootout, while team-mate Yvan Muller qualified in eighth position.

Norbert Michelisz was the only Honda driver in the top five shootout, but the Hungarian was slower than the Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet of James Thompson, who qualified in fourth position and was also the best placed of the independent drivers.

Thompson’s time was soon beaten by the Lada of Hugo Valente, which was in turn superseded by the Tarquini, but Catsburg oblitered his team-mates times with a lap 1.4 seconds faster to take the Russian manufacturer’s first pole position in the World Touring Car Championship.
“It couldn’t be any better,” said Catsburg. “I’m super surprised, I didn’t expect this at all. It shows that we with Lada Sport Rosneft have really made some progress, and I’m really happy to be P1.”

Source: TouringCarTimes