Rob Huff delighted with “fantastic” first weekend for Honda

Rob Huff felt right at home on his first weekend with Honda, scoring victory in the opening race in his Honda Civic WTCC, and despite an incident in race two where he was knocked off track into the first corner, bounced back to sixth, ensuring he left Paul Ricard just five points behind Citroën’s José María López in the standings.

“That was proper touring car racing, it was fantastic,” said an excited Huff to TouringCarTimes following race two.

Huff had started from ninth on the grid in the race, and had leapt forward at the start, until Gabriele Tarquini made mistake, with the Italian later admitting he missed his braking point and colliding with Lada team-mate Hugo Valente, who in turn pushed into Rob Huff, knocking him wide at the first corner.

“I thought the car was destroyed (after the contact), because I got hit that hard, and when I’ve been hit that hard in a car in the last few years I’ve been out of the race,” said Huff.

“I thought the rear-right was going to be completely destroyed, but it seems that the car is very strong on the rear. I had a lot of toe-in on the rear-right, but it probably helped as through all the right-handers it was sliding in beautifully.”

Although the first few cars allowed Huff past without much of a battle, it was harder once he broke into the points positions, with particularly the privateer Citroëns of Tom Chilton and Mehdi Bennani defending, before catching up with the driver who had made the initial contact with him, Hugo Valente.

“René (Münnich) just waved be through and some didn’t put up much of a fight, but once we caught the second pack of Demoustier, Chilton and Valente they did put up quite a fight, but I managed to get past them on traction out of the corners.

“It’s just so nice to be back in a car you can really do something with and race with, and coming back from 16th to sixth is just fantastic,” added the 2012 champion.

After a strong first weekend on Citroën’s home turf, Honda leave with a one-point lead over the French marque in the manufacturers’ title, with Huff saying the drivers’ championship is the target for this year.

“I do think I can win the championship,” said Huff. “I wouldn’t have come to Honda if I didn’t think I had a chance. Percentage-wise I’d say it’s more in their favour than it is in ours, we’ve shown this weekend we’ve got very got three very good drivers in three good cars, and they’ve got two very good drivers in two excellent cars. I think three can overcome two, but whether we can do it all the way through the year and be there at end of the year, who knows.”