Huff calls for a risky strategy and wins WTCR Race 2

Rob Huff claimed his first victory of the season in the second WTCR race at Vila Real. After inheriting the lead following Yvan Muller’s mistake, Huff elected to delay taking the joker loop as much as possible. It was a risky strategy, but luckily for him, paid off. Attila Tassi and Mikel Azcona completed the podium.

Yvan Muller sprinted from the pole and led ahead of Tassi, Azcona, Huff, Mehdi Bennani, Norbert Michelisz, Ma Qing Hua and Néstor Girolami. Muller opened a gap ahead of the trio Tassi-Azcona-Huff, but in lap 3 the safety car was deployed to recover the Honda cars of Tiago Monteiro and Esteban Guerrieri. A front-tyre puncture sent Monteiro crashing against the barrier and collecting Guerrieri.

Racing resumed in lap 6 with Azcona and Bennani taking the joker loop and dropping one place each. Muller kept on leading from Tassi and Huff, but Tassi took the joker loop and rejoined in third position; several other drivers took the joker loop as well, including Ma, Girolami and Urrutia. 

Muller began to pull away from Huff, but he made a mistake while entering in the joker loop and found himself in fourth position, behind Azcona. 

Huff increased his lead margin, while Tassi was defending the second position from Azcona and Muller. Eventually Huff took the joker loop with three minutes left on the clock and retained the lead, just before the safety car was deployed again following a crash that involved Dániel Nagy and Nathanaël Berthon.

The race finished behind the safety car and so Huff claimed his first victory of the season with Tassi and Azcona finishing second and third respectively. 

Race 1 dominators, Santiago Urrutia and Yann Ehrlacher were classified in tenth and eighth positions respectively; this helped Azcona to increase his points lead in the standings. The Spaniard has now a 16-point advantage over Urrutia, with Ehrlacher a further four points behind; Huff has moved into fourth, three points behind Ehrlacher. 

The championship will resume at Vallelunga on July 23/24.

Vila Real – Race 2
1. Rob Huff (Zengő Motorsport, CUPRA Leon Competición), 15 laps
2. Attila Tassi (Engstler Motorsport, Honda Civic Type R), 0.388
3. Mikel Azcona (BRC Squadra Corse, Hyundai Elantra N), 0.935

Championship points
1. M. Azcona 153 pts; 2. S. Urrutia 137; 3. Y. Ehrlacher 133

Picture: FIA WTCR/DPPI