Photo: WTCC Media

Rob Huff enjoyed Qatar Race 1 battle with former rival and “pain in the arse” Yvan Muller

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The two WTCC stalwarts Rob Huff and Yvan Muller put on a race-long show in the first race at Losail, with the Frenchman in the Volvo S60 holding off his former Chevrolet team-mate Huff for all ten laps, with Huff now driving the same car Muller was racing 12 months ago in Qatar.

Muller quickly dropped behind Polestar team-mate and championship leader Thed Björk at the start of the race in order to defend the Swede, and then fended off challenges from Huff in the Münnich Motorsport Citroën C-Elysée lap after lap to hold on to sixth in the reversed grid race.

“It was like 2009, 10, 11 and 12 all over again,” said Huff. “It was actually really good fun. It’s fantastic to have Yvan back, but he’s still a pain in the arse and very difficult to overtake. It brought back some nice memories, as it was just like old times.

“The problem here is once you get close to the car in front of you, you lose all of your front-end grip. As always, Yvan hasn’t lost any of his charm or his car positioning, and he made life very difficult.”

Yvan Muller was back racing as a one-off to support Polestar Cyan Racing’s championship challenges, but the 48-year-old was quick to admit he’d not been bitten by the racing bug, and was only there to support Volvo’s title fight.

“(I don’t miss racing), not really. I’m very honest. I mean, it’s nice to be here, I would not have accepted the offer otherwise, but I’ve had my part of racing,” said Muller.

“Last year it was my last race in the championship in a full championship, I never said I wouldn’t do some one-off events, but what I don’t want is to be focussed on a complete championship,” he added.

“I’ve really enjoyed my work this year. It’s been very different to what I’ve done for the last 30 years. It’s been great to work with the three different Cyan Racing drivers, Thed, Néstor and Nicky…but I have no regrets (about stopping) racing at all, though my year has been more busy than past years with this and also my own race team.”