Rob Huff amazed with Honda 1-2-3 and with López ‘cracking under pressure’

Rob Huff led a Honda 1-2-3 in Marrakech, Morocco in wet conditions, taking his second win of the 2016 season, after which the Brit praised the team after a brilliant result, the first time the Honda Civic WTCC TC1 has won a race from a non-reversed grid in the championship.

“I can’t thank the team enough,” said Huff. “The conditions were incredibly tricky but we really deserved this result. We believed the circuit would suit our car and that’s what happened, it was an emotional roller coaster this weekend.”

Although the track conditions changed radically on race day, the Civic reacted perfectly to the wet track: “You never know what’s going to happen when you have conditions like these, in the opening race we had the sun, 30 degrees and brake issues, and now we’ve had rain. In both conditions the car handled superbly, I couldn’t have asked for a better car. The start of the second race was always going to be difficult, there are a lot of painted surfaces which are very slippery, I had a brilliant launch and I was very clear into Turn 1. I made sure I braked early, because especially the first five or six laps were all about exploring and taking a lot of margin for error.”

Huff also reflected Citroën’s José María López making a mistake whilst battling with the Hondas, which were running 40kg lighter this weekend.

“We were sort of holding gaps between each other, I could see José María López was pushing as well, but then he made a mistake, which was nice to see. It’s his second mistake of the weekend and it shows that when you put the pressure on people can crack. It’s a great achievement to get this result after having put all three cars at the front.”

As for the remainder of the championship, the Brit believes all three Honda drivers have a shot at the title, although the WTCC is just one third through the season: “We are going to keep pushing and developing, with the car we have everything seems possible. I believe all three of us, especially Tiago (Monteiro) are in a good position to fight for the championship, although I lost a potential 25 points in Hungary due to the drive-through. It’s still early in the season though, hopefully we will have a few more 1-2-3s this year.”