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Lada, Honda, Chevrolet get ballast increase for Portugal

Lada have paid the price for its fast pace in the wet at their home race in Moscow Raceway, with the Russian manufacturer acquiring an additional 50kg of compensation weight as a result.

Hugo Valente, LADA Sport Rosneft, Lada Vesta

Hugo Valente, LADA Sport Rosneft, Lada Vesta

FIA WTCC

Checkered flag for Gabriele Tarquini, LADA Sport Rosneft, Lada Vesta
Tiago Monteiro, Honda Racing Team JAS, Honda Civic WTCC
James Thompson, All-Inkl Motorsport, Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1
Start action, race 1
Gabriele Tarquini, LADA Sport Rosneft, Lada Vesta; Hugo Valente, LADA Sport Rosneft, Lada Vesta; Nicky Catsburg, LADA Sport Rosneft, Lada Vesta
José María López, Citroën World Touring Car Team, Citroën C-Elysée WTCC
Rob Huff, Honda Racing Team JAS, Honda Civic WTCC

This puts Lada on the maximum ever base weight of 1,170kg for the next round of the World Touring Car Championship in Vila Real.

Nicky Catsburg's pole lap was 1.4 seconds faster than that of the next placed car, which was his own team-mate Gabriele Tarquini in Russia, meaning in qualifying they were actually 3.5 seconds clear of the next fastest model, the Chevrolet Cruze of James Thompson.

With the team's race laps taken into consideration, as well as their performances in Morocco and Germany, the three Vesta WTCCs of Catsburg, Tarquini and Hugo Valente were judged to be just 0.1 seconds away from the Citroens over the three races, and so will be just 10kg lighter than the championship leaders in Portugal.

Honda have also had an increase, with the Japanese manufacturer gaining an extra 30kg from Moscow, with the Civic WTCCs assessed as just 0.2 seconds a lap slower than the pace-setting Citroen C-Elysee WTCCs.

Chevrolet also gain 10kg of compensation weight, their first performance ballast allocation all season, thanks to impressive pace in Germany from ROAL Motorsport's Tom Coronel, and from Munnich Motorsport's James Thompson in Russia.

Only the Volvo S60s of Polestar Cyan Racing will run ballast free in Portugal.

Portugal compensation weights:

Car Gap Ballast
Citroen C-Elysee WTCC   80kg
Lada Vesta WTCC +0.1s 70kg
Honda Civic WTCC +0.2s 60kg
Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 +0.7s 10kg
Volvo S60 Polestar +1.1s 0kg

Neil Hudson / TouringCarTimes

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