Lada withdraws from the meeting

LADA Sport Lukoil has withdrawn both its Granta cars from the WTCC opening meeting at Monza.

The Russian team was forced to take this decision because neither of the cars can be repaired in time following the crash that happened yesterday during the qualifying session.
In the early stages of Q1, Aleksei Dudukalo missed the braking point at the first chicane and T-boned the sister car of James Thompson.

Both cars were badly damaged and, although Thompson was able to take part in Q2, the team deemed his car was not in a condition to race.

The team informed the Stewards of the meeting that Thompson’s car suffered from massive roll cage damage, while Dudukalo’s front suspension was too badly damaged to be repaired at the track.

For the time being, LADA Sport Lukoil cannot confirm the participation of Dudukalo to the next WTCC meeting at Marrakech.