Tiago Monteiro happy with improved pace from the Honda Civic

Finishing fourth and third in the two races in Termas de Río Hondo, Honda’s Tiago Monteiro is happy with the improvements that Honda and JAS Motorsport have made to the Honda Civic WTCC, which kept them snapping at the heels of the Citroën squad this weekend.

After shining in free practice, a mistake in qualifying kept Monteiro out of the top four, but made up a spot after Ma Qing Hua stalled his C-Elysée on the grid, and then made good ground in race two to move up from sixth on the grid to third, leading home the sister Honda Civic of Gabriele Tarquini.

“We are clearly closer to the competition than last year and with more updates coming I am confident we will increase our challenge as the season progresses,” said Monteiro. “We will keep fighting and put pressure on them wherever we can. It was so horribly hot in the cars, I have never driven in such heat, but we have done well and our results are reward for all the hard work of the team to get the season underway with such positive results.”

Tarquini was happy with a consistent pair of races which sees the 2009 champion tied in fourth with Citroën’s Yvan Muller on 22 heading to the second round of the championship next month.

“It was good to start the season with points,” said Tarquini, who was forced to miss the first races last year after an accident in practice.

“I had expected us to be more competitive than last year and I think we are but there is still more improvement needed to meet the big challenge of the opposition. The next two events are very different to Argentina. Marrakech is a street circuit with high kerbs and it is almost a lottery. Then Hungary is a much better circuit for the Civic so I hope we can gain even more performance by then.”