Huff to start on pole for first race of WTCC season

Rob Huff will start the Opening Race of the FIA World Touring Car Championship season from pole position at the WTCC JVCKENWOOD Race of France.

For this season, the reverse-grid system will now be used for the Opening Race of the weekend. That puts Huff, competing with Honda for the first time, at the front of the grid after coming 10th in Q2 in qualifying.

Huff will be joined on the front row by Fredrik Ekblom in the first WTCC race for the S60 Polestar TC1. Citroën driver Mehdi Bennani and Honda’s Norbert Michelisz will share row two, with the second Polestar-entered Volvo of Thed Björk fifth.

The next five places are set based on the Q3 order reversed, putting LADA’s Nicky Catsburg sixth in front of Tom Coronel, Yvan Muller, Tiago Monteiro and José María López.

The Opening Race takes place at 12h15 local time on Sunday. The Main Race will be at 17h15 with the grid set by the results of qualifying.