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Lada praises 'sensible' Kozlovskiy after WTCC debut

Lada says it was impressed with Mikhail Kozlovskiy's 'sensible approach' to his World Touring Car debut on the streets of Marrakech, after his predecessor's sacking for an intra-team crash

The 23-year-old Russian had just two weeks' notice prior to his race debut. Lada had decided to axe Aleksei Dudukalo following his qualifying crash with team-mate James Thompson at Monza.

While Kozlovskiy only qualified 21st and missed the points in both races - his best finish was 13th in a crash-strewn second race - Lada praised his approach to the weekend.

"We are very happy with Mikhail's mentality. He doesn't try anything silly, and step-by-step he made progress," team boss Viktor Shapovalov told AUTOSPORT.

"OK James is braking later, but Mikhail didn't try and match that straight away, he built up to it.

"He isn't trying to win qualifying or beat James straight away, and that's good. He does nothing silly."

Shapovalov said Kozlovskiy would be afforded time to improve his pace, particularly as Lada's new WTCC effort is itself just two races old.

"It's a serious championship, and it will take a long time for both Mikhail and the team to build up," he said.

"We haven't set him specific targets, we just want steady progress through the year.

"What is important is that he shows very good potential, so we're very pleased with his sensible mentality at the start."

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