Photo: TouringCarTimes

Rob Huff tops first test of the year at Monza

Münnich Motorsport’s Rob Huff was fastest of all in the morning test session at the Autodromo di Monza in Italy, leading the rival privateer Citroën of Mehdi Bennani, with the three Polestar Volvos of Néstor Girolami, Thed Björk and Yvan Muller in tow.

Huff led the way throughout the morning, improving on his lap times during the last hour of the day. The Briton produced a best lap of 1:52.888 on his final run, finishing the session ahead of Bennani’s Sébastien Loeb Racing-run Citroën by eight-tenths of a second.

There were two red flag stoppages during the test. First, Thed Björk experienced a puncture with his Volvo S60 TC1 earlier in the day, and with 15 minutes to go, Néstor Girolami crashed out at the first Lesmo in his Volvo while then running in second position.

Girolami would still finish as the best placed of the Volvo drivers, 1.4 seconds down on Huff’s time in third.

Behind the three factory Volvos was the sole Lada Vesta at the test of Yann Ehrlacher, just three-tenths of a second slower than his uncle, Yvan Muller.

Tom Chilton and John Filippi were next up in the SLR Citroëns, with Tiago Monteiro having set only a installation lap in the morning in his Honda Civic, finishing ninth.

The top ten was completed by Alberto Cerqui. The Italian driver is substituting for Tom Coronel in the ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet during the morning session while the Dutch driver is unable to attend until the afternoon.

Volvo’s third driver Nicky Catsburg is missing the test due to clashing commitments at Sebring, hence his place is being filled by the team’s test driver and ‘senior advisor’ Yvan Muller.

The test resumes at 14:00 CET.