Rob Huff has hailed his podium in the second World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) race in Japan as one of his best performances ever, after the LADA driver held on to third.
Huff started the race down in 13th position after a difficult qualifying on Saturday saw him fail to make it out of Q1. Whilst the Brit was only able to salvage ninth from the first race, the second encounter was a complete contrast.
Huff was up to sixth by the end of the opening lap, and the former champion benefitted from a collision between Honda’s Gabriele Tarquini and Citroën’s Ma Qing Hua to move up to fourth on lap four.
That became third when title contender Yvan Muller had to pit to have his bonnet secured, leaving Huff in a prime podium position. The LADA driver then defended strongly for the remainder of the race, holding off Citroën’s Sébastien Loeb and Tarquini for his second podium of the season.
“That was one of my best performances ever,” exclaimed Huff after the race. “I really appreciate what my LADA Sport Rosneft team have done to provide me with the competitive car. The Vesta felt fantastic on the track.
“I felt very comfortable and I was able to overtake and defend against the attacks of my rivals from behind. Brilliant race!
“We’ve had some problems with my car during the last two or three events and they pretty much spent the whole of last night rebuilding the car apart from the chassis. We’ve still got a couple of problems with the brakes but, ultimately, we still had two fantastic races and probably the best racing weekend of my life.”
Huff jokingly thanked his rivals for gifting him positions in the race, with several leading contenders making contact with others to gift Huff valuable positions.
“To start race two in 13th and come through to finish third I have to first of all thank all the other drivers for firing themselves off and making a complete mess of it, and then I have to give myself a pat on the back for defending to Gabriele and Loeb for the second half of that race.
“We’ve done some work during the summer break and the boys have done a great job. I’ve achieved something this weekend, which is to start on the outside of the reverse grid and get a podium, so it’s just testament to the job the LADA Sport team have done in bringing the car forward.”
Team Principal Victor Shapovalov concluded in equally enthusiastic fashion that it had been a good weekend for the Russian team.
“Incredible driving and performance of the car after the work that we put in since the last race and here in Japan, a great result for LADA Sport Rosneft!”