Rob Huff wins incident-packed final Vila Real race

Zengo Motorsport driver Rob Huff claimed his first victory of 2022 in the final FIA WTCR race of the weekend at Vila Real that was finished under safety car conditions, with the Cupra driver maximising his joker lap strategy.

At the start, reversed grid pole sitter Yvan Muller took the lead ahead of Atilla Tassi and BRC Motorsport’s Mikel Azcona as Huff climbed up to fourth place.

The safety car came into action on lap three as Engstler Motorsport’s Tiago Monteiro suffered a puncture, went into the wall and collected manufacturer colleague Esteban Guerrieri.

The race was restarted on lap six.

Azcona was the first of the leading group to take the joker lap on lap seven and hit a bollard, with the stewards announcing his lap is under investigation.

Disaster struck for race leader Muller who took the joker lap on lap nine, going too deep and dropped down to fourth.

Race 1 winner Santiago Urrutia let team-mate Thed Björk through on lap ten to try to chase down Girolami.

Huff meanwhile took the opportunity to charge ahead and build a gap, taking the joker lap on lap 12 to rejoin in the lead.

Just after Huff had taken his joker lap, his Zengo Motorsport team-mate Dániel Nagy crashed into the barriers, collecting Comtoyou Racing’s Nathanäel Berthon. The incident brought out the safety car for a second time.

With two minutes plus one lap remaining on the clock, the race was finished under the safety car conditions, with Huff winning ahead of Tassi and Azcona.

Muller was fourth, ahead of Michelisz, Bennani, Ma, Ehrlacher, Girolami and Urrutia, who recovered tenth place from team-mate Björk.

Azcona still leads the championship after Vila Real on 153 points, 16 ahead of Urrutia and 20 over Ehrlacher.

The next round of the WTCR takes place at Vallelunga on July 23-24.