Photo: WTCC Media

Huff vs. Muller for WTCC showdown at Macau

By

Chevrolet team-mates Rob Huff and Yvan Muller go head to head for the 2011 World Touring Car Championship drivers’ title this weekend at the Guia Race at Macau.

Last year, Muller had already wrapped up his second WTCC drivers’ title at the penultimate round of the season, the first time in the current WTCC’s history that the Championship hasn’t gone to the final round at Macau.

There’s no such luck for the 42-year-old Frenchman this time, with his younger team-mate Rob Huff snapping at his heels, but it’s been a season of changing fortunes for the two title protagonists.

At the beginning of the season, British driver Rob Huff was the dominant force, taking the first three pole positions of the season at Curitiba, Zolder & Monza, and taking six victories in the first 12 rounds of the season – a not to be sniffed at one-in-two win ratio.

Reigning Champion Yvan Muller on the other hand had a relatively sloppy start to the season. Muller’s first win didn’t come until the eighth race of the season at the Hungaroring, but it was from here that his performance dramatically turned around. Muller went on to take his first pole position of the season at the next meeting at Brno, whilst Huff has not been on pole position since.

Muller’s also taken nine victories since Hungary, that’s in 15 races so more than a one in two ratio, whilst Huff’s last win was at Porto in early July.

Muller now goes to Macau with a 20 point lead in the Championship, meaning all he has to do is outscore Huff by five points in the first race and the title’s decided before race two even begins.

However, Macau is certainly one of the more exotic races of the season, a track where Muller is yet to take victory in his five previous attempts. Rob Huff on the other hand has become a bit of a specialist at the Guia Race, taking pole position for the last two years in the Chevrolet Cruze, as well as three victories in the last three years.

With just 20 points the gap with 50 remaining for the final round of the season, it’s still all to play for.