Rob Huff was pleased with qualifying in third for the main World Touring Car Championship race at Monza, despite making two mistakes on his Q3 lap that cost him a shot at pole position.
Huff had shown he had the pace to challenge for pole in Q2 when he put in two consecutive fastest times, before he was pipped to the top spot by the Volvo trio who were working together at slipstreaming.
The Brit ended up fifth in Q2, which proved to be just enough to get him through to Q3, despite not having a team-mate to work with on strategy or a tow.
Huff admitted that this made life more difficult for him, but he was still able to get a slipstream off some of his rivals due to being located further down the pitlane and thus following his rivals around the circuit on his out lap.
“We’re quite lucky because we’re quite far down the pitlane, and in Q2 I managed to get on the back of the Hondas,” said Huff to TouringCars.Net. “[Tom] Coronel was in the middle but he went off in sector two, and if he hadn’t I think he could have done me a favour because I was catching him. I got on to the back of Tiago [Monteiro] and that was enough to get my through to Q3.
“I didn’t do the best job in Q3, I hold my hands up to that. I made two mistakes, but ultimately I have to be happy.
“Honda have done a hell of a job with their new engine, there’s no doubt that it’s very quick indeed, and we knew even from last year that Volvo had a strong car in a straight line, so I think I have to be very happy to be sitting P3 in a private, on-car team.”
Huff says that he knew that as long as he could get into Q3 that he would have a good chance to take pole, with the emphasis on slipstreaming removed from the equation in the one-shot showdown.
In the end an error-free lap from the Volvo of Thed Björk gave the Swede his first-ever pole and left Huff on the second row of the grid.
“I knew that if we could get into Q3 that we’d have a good chance, but unfortunately I didn’t do the best lap as I had two oversteer moments.
“Huge congratulations to Thed, as it was a hell of a lap – the sector two [time] he did there was pretty stonking, to be fair. It just didn’t quite work out for us, but I have to be happy with P3.”