José María López doesn’t feel at fault for Monteiro contact

Citroën’s José María López says he doesn’t feel guilty “even 1%” for incident on lap seven or race two at Paul Ricard with Honda’s Tiago Monteiro, which saw the Honda driver eliminated from the race, and proved a key moment with López going on to take his fifth win of the season.

López converted ninth on the grid to victory in the second race in France and has provisionally extended his points lead over team-mate Yvan Muller to 39 points, though the stewards have not yet decided on any action over the incident.

“I tried on the outside with Tiago and he just came over on to me while I was there and I just couldn’t do anything,” said López. “It was a shame for him, he’s a friend, but I can’t do anything, I don’t feel guilty even 1% for the manoeuvre. After that I had a few laps when I wasn’t sure of the car as my steering was a little bit wrong on the left side.”

Monteiro however believes López was fully at fault for the incident.

“I was very surprised when he put me out,” said Monteiro to TouringCarTimes. “I know Pechito, we trust each other, and when I’m fighting with him I never expect something bad. He’s not sorry about it, he doesn’t believe he could have done anything about it, but I believe that he could have done, that’s what annoys me about it, not that he did it on purpose, but that he could have avoided it.

“He was already on the outside of the track so why not go 10cm more to avoid a contact? I know it was not intentional, but it hurt me. Now I don’t care if he gets a penalty or not, as it makes no difference to me, it just ****ed my race and I lost a lot of points in the championship.”