What should have been a successful race weekend for Rob Huff and the Chevrolet WTCC team at round one of the 2008 World Touring Car Championship at Curitiba took a turn for the worse barely two laps into the first race. Rob's team-mate Alain Menu was deliberately taken off by another competitor, while a broken gearbox as a result of a clash with the same competitor caused fellow Chevrolet Lacetti driver Nicola Larini to crash into Rob. The 28-year old Cambridgeshire driver later retired from the race with resultant suspension problems, and then fell innocent victim to another collision in the second race, forcing him to leave Brazil with two DNFs and no points.

Events had got off to an encouraging start, when Rob posted the 9th best time in Friday's testing – just 0.707 seconds off the fastest time, despite only system-checking the car and not really pushing his works RML-prepared Chevrolet Lacetti hard.

Saturday's qualifying session was going well, with Rob one of the fastest drivers on the circuit vying for a front row starting position. Unfortunately, two of his three fastest lap attempts were aborted by incidents – one of which was caused by Menu, who stopped the session after crashing heavily. That one clean lap was enough for Rob to qualify 8th on the grid, this time just 0.443 seconds behind the fastest driver, which was Yvan Muller in the SEAT Leon TDI.

"Pity about those two excellent laps I had to abort, otherwise I would certainly have been higher up the grid," said Rob. "The speed of the turbocharged diesel cars on the straights is just ridiculous. On my fastest lap I had a perfectly fast exit out of the last turn, with one of them four or five car lengths behind me and by the end of the pit lane straight he was just inches form my rear bumper. The car is handling really well and we seem to have a good race pace. Being eighth on the grid is of course a very good position to be in to score points in race one and maybe be on the front row of race two."

Rob didn't have the opportunity to benefit from that good race pace, as Sunday's two races were cut short – though no fault of his own.

"Unfortunately I have had one of the shortest race weekends of my career," said Rob. "In race one I was the victim of Nic's gearbox issues, which ultimately led to my retirement with a broken suspension. Then in the second race Tiago Monteiro got alongside me but ran over the kerbs and got launched onto my rear wheel, so I had to three-wheel to pits again. It's a pity because all three of us had a good car and we could have had a really good start to the season."

Rounds 3 and 4 of the 2008 FIA World Touring Car Championship take place in Puebla (Mexico) on April 5-6.

Curitiba Race 1 Results

1.	Y Muller	SEAT Leon TDI	16 laps in 23m47s024
2.	R Rydell	SEAT Leon TDI	+ 0s763
3.	A Farfus	BMW 320si	+ 1s234
4.	J Müller	BMW 320si	+ 1s512
5.	A Priaulx	BMW 320si	+ 6s747
6.	G Tarquini	SEAT Leon TDI	+ 8s247
DNF	R Huff	Chevrolet Lacetti	Accident damage (7 laps)

Curitiba Race 2 Results

1.	G Tarquini	SEAT Leon TDI	14 laps in 20m06s577
2.	A Priaulx	BMW 320si	+ 0s327
3.	F Porteiro	BMW 320si	+ 1s202
4.	J Müller	BMW 320si	+ 1s745
5.	Y Muller	SEAT Leon TDI	+ 5s045
6.	A Farfus	BMW 320si	+ 5s360
DNF	R Huff	Chevrolet Lacetti	Accident (0 laps)

Drivers Points Standings After Race 2 Of 24
1. Y Muller (SEAT), 14 points; 2. G Tarquini (SEAT), 13; 3. A Priaulx (BMW), 12; 4. R Rydell (SEAT), 10; 5. J Müller (BMW), 10;…

Manufacturers Standings After Race 2 Of 24
1. SEAT, 33 points; 2. BMW, 25; 3. Chevrolet, 7.