Having endured a disastrous start to the World Touring Car Championship in Brazil, Chevrolet will hope to kick-start its campaign this weekend as the series heads to Mexico for the second round of the year.
A series of incidents at Curitiba left the RML-run team pointless after the first two races of the year making this weekend's event crucial for the team and its championship aspirations.
However, Puebla will thrown up its own challenge with the circuit being at high altitude and engine horsepower for the naturally-aspirated petrol engines being down as a result.
“I struggle to make a prediction for the Puebla race,” Larini said. “A couple of the turbo diesels already have some significant success ballast, but you still have three with almost no extra weight, so it is going to be hard to beat them. On the other hand, and although the results do not show this, the first two races proved that we are competitive, so I am confident that we can fight for a podium position in the second race thanks to the reversed grid.
“The recent tests I did in Guadix just confirmed my conviction that we have been working in the right direction all through the winter break. But we will not have a correct picture of what this season will look like until we are back to Europe, with Valencia being the first race with a real level ground for everybody.”
Swiss star Menu said he feels a podium finish could still be a realistic aim against the diesel powered SEATs this weekend, while Briton Huff added that the lack of weight on any of the Lacettis could play a key part in how the weekend pans out.
“Mexico will be our toughest race, but the pace of the chassis has always been good there before,” he said. “The three of us will just have to capitalise on the fact that none of us is carrying any ballast weight. So hopefully we can finish where we deserved to finish in Brazil since the pace we had in Curitiba was very good; as we proved before we got wiped out in the first race.
![Nicola Larini - Chevrolet Lacetti [pic credit: FIA WTCC]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/411957.jpg)
