Rob Huff leads wet-dry-wet first practice in Hungary
Münnich Motorsport’s Rob Huff was fastest of all in a mixed conditions practice session at the Hungaroring, with the Citroën driver finishing just under a tenth of a second clear of current points leader Tiago Monteiro
Monteiro set the first marker in the now heavily ballasted Honda Civic WTCC, but almost as soon as the firsts laps were in, light rain began to fall at the Hungarian circuit, with no further improvements seen for the best part of 20 minutes.
The first sign the track had started to dry out was when Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Mehdi Bennani went fastest of all in his Citroën C-Elysée, the first in the 1:52s, with faster lap times soon to follow as SLR’s Tom Chilton and Volvo’s Nicky Catsburg breaking into the 1:51s, before Rob Huff went fastest of all with a time of 1:50.609.
Monteiro soon came close with a time just 0.067 seconds behind. Although Monteiro would find more time from the car later in the session, he, along with Lada’s Yann Ehrlacher, would have his best lap deleted for exceeding the track limits at Turn 4.
Thed Björk would make a late improvement to go third fastest in the Polestar Cyan Racing Volvo S60, with Esteban Guerrieri making it four makes in the top four, with the Argentinian the fastest of the two Chevrolet Cruzes for Campos Racing.
“It was a really mixed session,” said Huff. “It wasn’t ever really dry or ever really wet, so it was just a case of getting a lap in at the right time I think.”
The best-placed of the RC Motorsport Ladas was Yann Ehrlacher in 11th position, while the two Hungarians were at the bottom of the time sheets, with neither Honda’s Norbert Michelisz or Zengõ Motorsport’s Daniel Nagy setting representative lap times.
The second 45-minute practice session takes place at 11:30 CET.
