Rob Huff took 13th place in the fifth round of the FIA World Touring Car Championship at Silverstone today to once again be top Chevrolet Lacetti driver after his RML team-mates Alain Menu and Nicola Larini failed to finish. The 25 year-old Cambridge driver in only his second season in touring car racing qualified in 18th place on the grid for the first 14 lapper around the 2.249 mile International circuit.

A fantastic start saw him pass four cars on the opening tour and on the penultimate lap was lucky to avoid a spinning Alex Zanardi as they entered Priory. He recovered to cross the line in a strong 13th place at the flag, his best finish of the season, to line up on the seventh row of the grid for the day's second race. "I had a great start," said Rob. "I got the power down just right, had lots of grip and managed to pass at least four cars before the first corner by moving to the outside. Other than that I had just a little misfire, which was just a sensor and which was repaired for race two. I was lucky on the penultimate lap to avoid Zanardi, he just locked up the rear wheels but thankfully I was able to get by without too much trouble."

Another lightning start from the youngster on his home circuit could well have provided Rob with his first top ten finish of the season until disaster struck as the cars entered Abbey Curve for the first time. Running a few places ahead, Antonio Garcia had lost control of his BMW 320i after being tipped into a spin by another car and unsighted by the cars in between. With Rob already tapped sideways by Stefano D'Aste, he simply had nowhere to go, the rear left of his car swiping Garcia's and ripping the wheel off.

Rob was fortunately uninjured in the crash although he was disappointed not to have a top ten finish at his home track. "In the second race there was just nothing I could do to avoid hitting Garcia. I'd been hit by D'Aste which knocked me sideways, then when I came into the corner there was Garcia sitting in front of me. The violence of the impact took off the left rear wheel, and my race was over. Generally though I'm happy with the improvement of pace over the weekend, although disappointed with the second result."

Rob's next outing will be at Imola, Italy in two weeks time on May 28th/29th.