Rob Huff was ‘very happy’ to even take part in qualifying for the World Touring Car Championship races in Morocco, after a seatbelt issue meant that he failed scrutineering on Saturday morning.
The Brit failed to take part in first practice, missing valuable track time, before getting his first taste of the Citroën on the streets of Marrakech in second practice, where he ended up in third.
Qualifying went well for the Münnich Motorsport driver, with Huff posting the fourth and fifth fastest times in Q1 and Q2 respectively.
On his sole Q3 run Huff then went fourth fastest, just over half a second shy of the eventual pole time, after being the first of the five drivers out on track for his run.
Huff explained afterwards that it was a seatbelt issue which had cost him track time earlier in the day, and he praised all of those involved in ensuring that he was able to get out on track.
“Up until 11:45 this morning I wasn’t driving,” explained Huff. “It was a huge effort from the team and one seatbelt company from the UK in particular, Sabelt, for coming out late last night – driving six hours across the UK and bringing me some seatbelts and flying in from the UK at 06:00 this morning.
“The team did a great job but we missed vital time and that showed. In Free Practice 1 we lost a lot but I’m very happy to have made the qualifying let alone the top five.”
Huff, who was on pole in a Honda at the circuit in 2016 before being excluded after the event, believes that the Circuit Moulay el Hassan will potentially be the weakest circuit for the C-Elysée, so he is not disappointed about not having got on the front row of the grid.
“Points make prizes and we know from the past this is potentially Citroën’s worst track and definitely one of the best ones for Honda as we saw last year.
“But I have to be very happy sat here after qualifying so happy days.”
The Opening Race takes place at 16:35 BST (17:35 CEST) on Sunday, with the Main Race following at 17:45 BST (18:45 CEST).