Rob Huff was ‘really pleased’ with putting his Citroën on the front row of the grid in qualifying for the World Touring Car Championship in Portugal, saying that he ‘really maximised the car’.
Brit Huff secured his second front row grid position of the season in qualifying on Saturday, although he ended up over half a second ashy of eventual pole-sitter Norbert Michelisz.
Despite there being such a big difference to the leading Honda, Huff said he was really pleased with his qualifying lap, which go two tenths faster than he had in Q2.
“I’m really, really genuinely pleased,” said Huff. “I really felt that we got the most out of the car. There’s always a room for one or two tenths on a street circuit like this, but every time we went out with fresh tyres we went faster and faster and really maximised the car.
“The team did a great job; every change we made on the car this morning in the practice sessions we were faster and faster, so I’m genuinely really, really pleased to be on the front row.
“Huge congratulations to Norbi for two pole positions in a row. We’ve got some work to do, obviously, because we’re still seven tenths behind but you know the 30 kilos makes a good difference around here and that’s what it’s there for.
“We got a good lap, the fastest lap we did all weekend was in the Q3 on that one lap so yes, chuffed to bits.”
When pressed about his thoughts on the new ‘joker lap’ innovation, which Huff tried out for the first time on Saturday along with the rest of the field, he admitted to being nonchalant about the addition to the races.
“I don’t really care either way to be honest with you about the ‘joker’ lap,” added Huff. “It’s there, we do it and we find out tomorrow exactly what impact it has on the championship and the races itself.
“We’ve got good strategies in both races so we’ll have to see. People are going to win, people are going to lose and hopefully we can do the earlier version.”