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Rob Huff bemoans brake issue in qualifying in Argentina

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Rob Huff was content with two points finishes in Argentina, which keeps him on the outside of the main group in championship contention, after a brake problem was him qualify down in 13th for the two races at the Termas de Río Hondo circuit.

Huff’s Münnich Motorsport squad had replaced the brakes ahead of qualifying after problems in practice, but with no time to bed them in, a flat spot on his new tyre run saw him miss the top 12 cut-off after a late improvement from the Honda of Ryo Michigami.

The Briton capitalised on incidents in the opening race to finish seventh, but could do no better than ninth in the main race, trapped behind the ever-wide Citroën of Tom Chilton, and the 80kg lighter Lada Vesta of 21-year-old Yann Ehrlacher.

“Our problems all stemmed from qualifying,” said Huff. “We had a brake issue in Free Practice 2, which meant we had to start qualifying with new brakes, and the braking was completely transformed. I braked in the same place as normal on the back straight with new tyres, but it locked the front axle and flat spotted the new tyres and that was the end of that.”

Although Huff was happy with the progress in the races, the pace of the Citroën in Argentina left little to be desired, with the French cars again running with the highest compensation weight compared to its competitors.

“This is one of the toughest tracks for this car for sure; we saw all of the Citroëns didn’t have the pace of Volvo or Honda at all this weekend – of course the 20kg weight difference will have something to do with that, as that is worth 5km/h per lap,” he explained.

Though Huff is 65 points behind Tiago Monteiro in the championship, with 240 left to play for, the 37-year-old isn’t writing off his chances yet.

“Tiago scored a few more points than we’d have liked him to, but the fact that Norbert Michelisz won the second race and Yann Ehrlacher won the first was a bit of a blessing. It’s a bit of a long gap until the next race, but we’re still there in the championship, and we can still do it.”