Rob Huff scored his, and his Chevrolet team's, first points in the 2007 FIA World Touring Car Championship, when the 27-year old driver from Cambridgeshire scored a fifth place in the opening race of the season in Curitiba, Brazil (Sunday 11 March). Unfortunately, an accident on the first corner of the second race put Rob out – but it was still a good start to the season.

The race weekend started well for Rob as he qualified sixth – setting a quicker time than both his Chevrolet team-mates, Nicola Larini and Alain Menu. "On my first two runs I got caught in traffic each time just before the last corner, which completely took my aero away, making the car understeer a lot," said Rob about qualifying. "On my last run I then went for it on my own. We changed the damper settings a bit which improved my lap by three-tenths of a second in the middle sector, and in Turn 9 I went deeper on the brakes than before which was exactly what was needed to stitch this lap together. I was quite pleased!"

A huge crowd of 33,000 spectators turned up for race day and in very hot and humid conditions 20 of the world's best touring cars lined up for the first ever WTCC rolling start. Although this starting procedure was new to Rob, he made a good start and moved up a place to 5th. A crash on the first corner left debris on the circuit and the Safety Car came out, and at the re-start Rob drove faultlessly to hold on to 5th position to score four WTCC points.

The second race got under way with a more traditional standing start, and once again Rob made a great start. Thundering down the very long start/finish straight, Rob was on the inside of Alex Zanardi when the two touched as they braked for the first corner. The high-speed collision saw Rob's Chevrolet Lacetti bounce off the BMW and into the air and dramatically spin out of the race – bringing a premature end to what had been a tremendously successful and encouraging race weekend for Rob.

Rob said: "The first race went fine, except for some serious understeer going into Turn 6, as well as accelerating out of that turn. So I had to solve that by lifting, turning in, smoothly going through the corner and then accelerating out again later than normal. For race two we changed the camber, which improved things. In race two, I had a brilliant start, running in third up to Turn 1, but then the car got away from me under braking as the pedal unexpectedly went long. I got hit by another car and that was it." The next race of the 2007 World Touring Car Championship takes place in Zandvoort, Holland on 6 May.

Curitiba Race 1 Results

1.	J Müller	BMW 320si	16 laps in 25m 38.208s
2.	A Priaulx	BMW 320si	+0.421
3.	A Farfus	BMW 320si	+1.234
4.	G Tarquini	SEAT Leon	+8.876
5.	R Huff	Chevrolet Lacetti	+9.701

Curitiba Race 2 Results

1.	A Farfus	BMW 320si	14 laps in 20m 20.148s
2.	A Priaulx	BMW 320si	+4.378
3.	J Müller	BMW 320si	+5.691
4.	Y Muller	SEAT Leon	+6.963
5.	G Tarquini	SEAT Leon	+7.479
DNF	R Huff	Chevrolet Lacetti	Accident (0 laps)

Drivers' Points Standings After Race 2 Of 22
1ex. J Müller (BMW), A Farfus (BMW) and A Priaulx (BMW) 16pts; 4. G Tarquini (SEAT) 9; 5. Y Müller (SEAT) 6; 7. R Huff (Chevrolet) and T Coronel (SEAT) 4.

Manufacturers' Standings After Race 2 Of 22
1. BMW, 36pts; 2. SEAT, 21; 3. Chevrolet, 9; 4. Alfa Romeo, 5.