Rob Huff “relieved” after Morocco disaster averted following seat belt issue

Rob Huff was able to take part in the second practice session in Morocco after his Citroën C-Elysée WTCC passed scrutineering just minutes ahead of the session, with the team able to fit a replacement set of seat belts, with the original set having caused the car to fail scrutineering on Friday.

The British driver set the third fastest time in the session, just three-tenths behind the two Hondas of Norbert Michelisz and Tiago Monteiro, after missing first session on Saturday, with the FIA officials not allowing him to run with the 2016-spec belts.

The team were able to organise a replacement set of seat belts to be despatched overnight from Sabelt UK, with the company’s managing director Steve Bennett personally bringing the replacements to Marrakech, landing just one hour ahead of the session start.

“I’m just so relieved,” said Huff to TouringCarTimes. “It’s been a nervous 24 hours. We went through so many people; we had Citroën in Corsica try and organise something, we had Sabelt in France working on it, then it clicked in my head that Nicky (Grist) does all this stuff and I gave him a call, and he put me in touch with Steve, and now we’re here.

“If this happened at any other circuit in the world, you could just go and buy seat belts. If you were at Paul Ricard, you could just go to ORECA – but there’s nowhere in Morocco.”

The FIA requires all cars to run a newer specification of racing seat belt for safety reasons from 2017, which is why the scrutineers refused permission for Huff and Münnich Motorsport to take part until they were upgraded.

The team accept that the responsibility falls on them for not following the technical regulations, but also had an expectation that the car would have been equipped to have been racing legal for 2017, as were the three Sébastien Loeb Racing-run entries.

With 45 minutes lost in practice, Huff’s aim is to score the most from the weekend, at the circuit notoriously hard to pass, and one where his old team Honda were dominant last season.

“It’s almost impossible to overtake here, so we just need to get a good qualifying, get up the front somewhere and move on to Monza,” said Huff.

“(Honda) were first, second and third last year. The weather’s a bit different, but the Honda is very good here because of the mechanical balance of the car and the traction it has. I’m only struggling in sector one here, so we’ll make some changes to try and help before qualifying.”