After the emotional highs and lows of the previous WTCR round in Hungary, Rob Huff would have been keen to make the most of his pace in the Zengo Motorsport CUPRA this time around. Unfortunately though, qualifying didn’t quite go to plan at Autodrom Most.
At the Hungaroring, Huff had driven to pole position, but damage picked up in the reversed-grid opener meant that he was unable to take up his grid slot for the main race. As such, ‘Huffy’ would have hoped to score big here in Czechia, to make up for the points that he lost.
That, however, will be much harder to do after the qualifying session that he endured on Friday. CUPRA did indeed go on to take back-to-back pole positions, but it was Huff’s team-mate Mikel Azcona who managed that feat instead on this occasion. Huff, meanwhile, had to settle with thirteenth.
“Yeah, [it was a] difficult qualifying,” he reflected. “We definitely had the speed in the car and I felt very comfortable with the circuit. Everything was looking good but then unfortunately we got blocked a few times in qualifying.
“On the two laps that I had to get through [into Q2] I just got baulked a little bit by other drivers who were on their warm-up laps. This just cost us a few tenths [of a second] and we missed out by a few thousandths I think, so it’s very frustrating.
“P13 is the worst place to be obviously, because it means you’re the first car to miss out on Q2. It’s a shame because after Budapest qualifying we had a lot of confidence and like I say, the car felt good, I felt good.
“The time was definitely there, so it’s just frustrating. But we fight forward tomorrow and see what the racing brings.”
Huff is always good value for an entertaining charge up through the midfield, so don’t count the Brit out just yet, especially given the speed that CUPRA clearly have at this venue.