Rob Huff surprised by Honda’s pace at Monza
Münnich Motorsport’s Rob Huff says he was surprised by the pace of Honda at the Monza circuit, struggling to keep up with the Civic of former team-mate Tiago Monteiro in Race 2, with the Japanese cars topping the speed traps throughout the weekend.
Huff, who left Honda at the end of last year and joined the privateer Münnich squad, running the championship-winning Citroën C-Elysée, said he was impressed by the Honda team’s newfound pace at Monza.
“This was going to be ours and Volvo’s weekend, and it was supposed to be Honda’s worst, but the job they’ve done with that car over the winter is mightily impressive,” Huff said to TouringCarTimes.
“Tiago was just pulling away from me on the straights. It’s a shame we hadn’t done that last year, as I think we’d have taken the fight to the Citroën works team.”
A factor to consider however is that the four C-Elysées are still carrying 50kg of compensation weight as the winning manufacturer from last year. This will be recalculated for the next round of the championship at the Hungaroring, and with Honda and Volvo setting the bulk of the fastest laps and both pole positions in the first two races, the two manufacturer teams are set to receive a large increase in penalty weight.
“The other guys are going to get some weight,” said Huff. “We don’t know how much it’s going to change, but every little helps. We’ve tested in Budapest and we know we’ve got a good balance in the car straight away, but the 50kg we’re carrying round here hurt us a lot.”
Huff’s two podiums at Monza put his championship challenge back on track, now moving to joint-fifth in the drivers’ standings and taking the lead of the independents’ classification, despite finishing Race 1 with a battle-damaged car.
“The first race was good race,” said Huff. “I was really focussing on staying out of trouble, but at the start I got a big hit up the arse by Tiago, which caused me some damage as it put me into the Volvo,” he added, pointing out the damage to the right of his car.
“It’s a shame as me and Esteban (Guerrieri) had a really nice Turn 1, we were both side-by-side, he left me room, and then as we went into the left, we both got shoved up the rear and that put me into Catsburg; but I’m on the brake pedal and I’m being pushed forward, so there was nothing I could do whatsoever. It’s a shame, as everyone has to make Turn 1, we have a lot of damage on the rear for nothing, as you can’t drive through people.”
