Rob Huff believes that a victory in the opening World Touring Car Championship race in France is a realistic opportunity, after the Honda driver put his car on the front row for the reverse-grid first race.
Huff had originally qualified in tenth for the main race, which translated to pole for the opening race. However that changed to ninth, and second for the first race, after Polestar Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk was excluded from qualifying.
“Starting from the front row for tomorrow’s opening race gives us a great opportunity to start the season with a race victory for Honda,” said Huff. “It’s something that we’ll work very hard to achieve.
“We have to be realistic that pole is as a result of a reversed grid and that it will be a challenge to come through the field from ninth in the main race.”
Huff was the slowest of the three works Honda drivers in qualifying, behind team-mates Tiago Monteiro, who was second, and Norbert Michelisz, who put his Civic in sixth.
As a result, the former champion admits that he and his team have more work to do in order to understand where to improve compared to his team-mates.
“I had a slight issue with straight-line speed, which cost me some time to Tiago and Norbi, but the team is already analysing the data and will have the car in excellent shape tomorrow.
“We can also take a lot of confidence from Tiago’s pace, as it means the car has taken a big step forwards on last year.”
The opening WTCC race takes place at 11:15 BST (12:15 CEST) and is available to watch live online for free this weekend at http://premium.fiawtcc.com/.