Rob Huff and Medhi Bennani arrived at the Hungaroring circuit near Budapest on 28-29 April to race in the second round of the new Touring Car World Cup in their Volkswagen GTI TCRs. Sébastien Loeb and Dominique Heintz’s team will tackle the next round on the iconic Nürburgring after scoring their maiden victory in Hungary.
On the first day, the Sébastien Loeb Racing drivers, Englishman Rob Huff and Medhi Bennani from Morocco, met with mixed fortunes. Huff suffered from minor brake problems, but still managed to give his dangerous rivals, the Hyundais, a run for their money by finishing fifth in the first race, while Bennani fought his way up to tenth.
In race 2, the 2012 WTCC champion really showed his skills in his Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR. Huff took advantage of his pole position to shoot into the lead and went on to clinch a fantastic first victory in the WTCR from Daniel Nagy and Yvan Muller who rounded out the top 3. Thanks to this win, Sébastien Loeb Racing has added its name to the championship’s victory roll call in only the fifth race of the latter! His team-mate, Bennani, was in third place on the grid, but got caught up in traffic and gradually fell back to seventh.
After the start of race 3 the Moroccan was punted off the track just before the second corner and finished at the back of the field. His team-mate coped with the pressure from his opponents and saw the chequered flag in eighth place in the final heat.
After this weekend Huff is lying fifth in the drivers’ championship with 65 points and Bennani ninth with 40. The team from Alsace is in fourth place after the second round of the season, which bodes well for the forthcoming rounds in the championship!
“As qualifying went off well on Saturday, I tackled the weekend in a very optimistic frame of mind. Unfortunately, things didn’t pan out as expected with a low-key start in race 2, which cost me places, followed by an accident with Benjamin Lessennes’ Honda in race 3. But there’s still a long way to go in the championship and even though I was hoping to do better, I’m still scoring points. That’s the main thing. Now I’m looking ahead to the Nürburgring.” Medhi Bennani.
“The weekend got off to a good start, and despite brake problems in race 1 I managed to clinch fifth place although I was up against tough rivals. I’m really happy with the weekend’s results. The team did an incredible job and I’m very grateful to them. We really fought for this victory; it’s a great reward! Thanks to all this work we were able to leave the Hyundais trailing in our wake even if it was very tight at certain moments. The points are very important as they ensure that we’re well placed in the championship. It’s great!” Rob Huff
“We’re satisfied overall with the experience we’ve accumulated this weekend rewarded by Rob’s victory in particular. The pace was pretty hot and there was an intense battle for victory. The only black point is the Balance of Performance as it’s really difficult for us to match the speed of the Hyundais and Hondas among others. But we’re maintaining a positive outlook and we’re already focusing on the next round at the Nürburgring. It’s not really a track that suits us, but we hope that the FIA is going to take the necessary steps to readjust the Balance of Performance. We’re going to continue building on the encouraging performances we’ve shown so far.” Jean-Philipe Nicolao, the Sébastien Loeb Racing technical manager.
Next round of the 2018 FIA WTCR for Sébastien Loeb Racing at the Nürburgring (Germany) on 11-12 May.