Rob Huff was ‘super happy’ to claim his second World Touring Car Championship pole of the season on the streets of Macau, as the Brit put himself in the prime position for the Main Race on Sunday.
Huff had been trailing Honda’s Norbert Michelisz in Thursday and Friday’s practice sessions respectively, but the Macau master pulled it out of the bag in qualifying to beat the factory driver by three tenths of a second in his independent Münnich Motorsport Citroën.
Huff last won on the street circuit in 2015, when he took part in the race when it was part of the TCR International Series, and the Brit has claimed victory in seven of his past eight seasons racing on the circuit.
“If we could race at Macau for twelve rounds of the championship that would be great,” joked Huff. “It’s been a really tough weekend. The car wasn’t quite where I thought it would be in my expectations coming here and we’ve had to work really hard to put it where it needs to be.
“In the end I was very, very happy. The track always starts very slow but as you saw we gained four or five seconds from yesterday’s practice. It’s just finding the grip and exploring the circuit.”
Huff took on the circuit without any compensation weight in his C-Elysée for the first-ever time, and used it to smash the lap record on the Circuito da Guia, going three tenths faster than the lap record.
“I was last here two years ago in the TCR car, which of course is much slower and the track is different in a TCR car to what it is in a WTCC car. It took a bit of readjusting and I saved everything for the last lap in Q2 and then Q3.
“We only needed to be in the top twelve, which we knew we’d comfortably do and then we needed top five [for Q3] and I wanted to have a big push in Q2 to see what the car was like really on the limit and then just find a little bit more in Q3.
“I’m super-happy for the team, it’s thoroughly deserved; we’ve had some pretty rotten luck and a few mistakes from my side and the team’s side this year.
“If there’s one place, I want to be able to put it right it’s here at Macau.”