Rob Huff secured his best finish of the 2013 World Touring Car Championship as he finished 4th in the second race of the weekend at the Slovakia Ring.
The British racer, who secured a victory at the circuit in 2012 started the weekend on the back foot as he was demoted to 17th on the grid for the opening race of the weekend after his ALL-INKL.com Münnich Motorsport SEAT Leon failed the post-qualifying ride height check.
From the rolling start, Huff worked his way up the order and at the end of the opening lap, was 14th just behind fellow British racer James Thompson in the LADA Granta and they were both bottled up behind the BMW’s of Bennani, D’Aste and Barth.
Huff’s weekend took a turn for the worse on lap 5 as he dropped down the order after a visit to the gravel trap at turn one and he finished 17th, behind team-mate Marc Basseng.
Race 2 saw the 2012 Champion line up 4th after the top 10 drivers from qualifying were reversed and he was determined to secure a good result for the team.
He snatched third at the start and was then involved in a race long battle with former team-mate and title rival Yvan Muller and the Frenchman briefly demoted him at turn one before Huff retook the position and the next corner.
Third soon became second as he took the position from Marrakech winner Pepe Oriola and Huff continued his defence from Muller, until 3 laps from the end when he ran wide at turn one and dropped from second to fourth in one corner.
Huff brought the #1 ALL-INKL.com Münnich Motorsport car home fourth for his best result of the season and to equal the teams’ best result of the season.
“I’m a bit gutted to have lost that second place to Yvan (Muller) and Gabriele (Tarquini),” explains Huff, who is 10th in the Championship standings after 6 races.
“It would have been a fantastic result for my ALL-INKL.COM Munnich Motorsport team and I in only our sixth race together and I really thought I had the position covered.
“The team has worked tirelessly to make the car more competitive and deserved a podium result. We had a lot of understeer in the first race but nailed the set-up in race two and the SEAT was a dream to drive.”
Looking back at his battles in the second race and his general performance, Huff added: “It was a fraught race, though. Intense, but incredibly exciting! I’d obviously have liked to have finished second, but you have to take the positives. To end up fourth and in amongst the Hondas and Chevrolets provides us with a lot of hope and excitement moving forwards to Hungary.”