André Couto replaces Rob Huff at Ningbo

André Couto will take over from Rob Huff at this weekend’s round of the China Touring Car Championship in the SAIC VW333 Racing Volkswagen Lamando, after Huff was denied permission to take part in both the CTCC and the World Touring Car Cup by the FIA.

Couto, who made his touring car return in the most recent round of the TCR China Touring Car Championship with MacPro Racing, will switch to the CTCC this weekend which supports the WTCR, racing the team’s fourth Lamando GTS alongside Rodolfo Avila, Zhang Zhen Dong and Yang Fan.

Rob Huff, who took part in both of the CTCC and World Touring Car Championship races last season at the Ningbo International Speedpark, was denied permission by the FIA to take part in both the WTCR and CTCC races as scheduled both this weekend, and next weekend at the Wuhan street circuit, due to the sporting regulations stating no additional front-wheel drive testing can take place during or before the race weekend.

The same regulation prevented Jean-Karl Vernay from taking part in both the TCR Europe series round and WTCR races at Zandvoort back in May for Team WRT.