Photo: Christian Hartung

Rob Huff finishes the year on a high with win #25

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Outgoing champion Rob Huff ended his 2013 season on a high at Macau, a circuit where he has a stronger record than any other driver in the Championship, by taking his sixth win and what will likely be the last for SEAT in the WTCC.

The British driver drove from fourth to third in race one, but in the mayhem-filled race two he was able to avoid incident and work his way to the front in the two restarts to take the lead from seventh on the grid.

Huff was able to pass Tom Coronel’s ROAL BMW for the lead at Turn 1, a replica of the move he’d put on future team-mate James Thompson’s Lada the lap before, to take the lead and win his second race of the season in the ageing SEAT León.

“I didn’t expect that, and two podiums, I don’t know what happens to me at this place,” said Huff to TouringCarTimes.

“I got past Thommo before Mandarin because he has to lift for Turn 1, and then I got past Tommy (Coronel), and he didn’t make it easy, he gave me a bit of a nibble into Lisboa, but I trust him, he trusts me, most of the guys at the front can trust each other and you know you can race against them. And at a circuit like this you have to have that respect not only for the drivers, but the track as well, and if you don’t we’ve seen what happens,” said Huff, referring to the two major incidents which caused two red flag stoppages and 18 cars unable to finish the race.

“It was a shame so many guys got damaged, there’s hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage to a lot of cars, which is unnecessary.”

With 25 points collected for the win, and with a pointless weekend for RML’s Tom Chilton due to incidents in both races, Huff moved from sixth before the weekend to fourth in the drivers’ standings.

“We started this year saying to get fifth would feel like winning it, and to come away with fourth is amazing.

“And to finish the year of with a win at Macau in a SEAT is about as big an achievement as you can probably get.”

Huff’s win will likely be the last for a current specification S2000 car with new regulations coming into play next year, and the last for now for SEAT, with the Spanish manufacturer not building a car to the new regulations. The SEAT León was developed for the inaugural WTCC season back in 2005, dominating the championship in the 2008-2009 seasons.