Rob Huff struggling with undiagnosed power issue in Hungary

Rob Huff has said a problem to which the team are unable to get to the bottom of has kept him behind for the last two race weekends, with an enginge change in Austria and even a new car in Hungary not able to solve the problem.

Huff qualified in sixth position at the Hungaroring, but was swamped by the three Craft-Bamboo Racing SEATs around of him, eventually retiring with contact when he damaged his radiator in an incident with Pepe Oriola.

“We go on the power and we don’t go anywhere,” said Huff to TouringCarTimes. “We lost six-tenths on our fastest lap coming out of the last corner. It’s an electrical problem in the loom or something. On a lap, it’ll do it once or maybe three times, but if how it happens is different each time.”

“The telemetry on these cars isn’t of a really high level, so we can see we have a problem, but we can’t easily find out what’s causing it. The guys are working really hard, but when the basic telemetry we have can’t tell you, which is all to do with keeping costs down, which I totally understand, it also means we can’t find out what it is, which is very frustrating.”

Huff had a better run in Race 2, with the technical glitch not reoccuring, but was caught up in the starting incident with the SEAT of Stian Paulsen, which was just the start of a multi-car crash which saw Gianni Morbidelli, Dan Lloyd and Davit Kajaia retire from the race.

“I’m not sure what really happened, but at the exit of Turn 1, I took a bit hit on the rear-right from Paulsen. I managed to save it, but it dropped me down to around 15th place. The car was quick, we had the fastest third sector of the race, and if we were out front we could have done really well.”

Huff was stuck behind former champion Stefano Comini for much of the race, and was unable to find a way past the Swiss Audi driver.

“The engine was better, it seemed like it wasn’t sporadic anymore, but every time I got an overlap on Comini, he just pulled away on the straight,” said Huff.

“I got a nose up the inside, but every time he just closed the door, which is a little bit dangerous for him; but at the same time he knows every time he pulls a gear, he pulls a bit further ahead. It was never really a problem for him.”