Honda withdraw appeal over Tiago Monteiro’s exclusion in Thailand

The Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team have withdrawn their appeal, which sought to reinstate Tiago Monteiro’s victory in the second race at Thailand earlier this month, following a post-race inspection of the car.

The decision by Honda means Sébastien Loeb is confirmed as the winner of the most recent round of the World Touring Car Championship, and as a result he will remain second in the standings heading into next week’s finale, five points ahead of Citroën team-mate Yvan Muller as the two French drivers battle over the runner-up spot in the standings.

Honda Racing Team JAS team principal Alessandro Mariani confirmed to TouringCarTimes the team initially believed it was damage from the first race to Monteiro’s car which caused the ride height to fail post-race inspection, hence the decision of the team to file an appeal within the strict FIA time limits. However, on further review, the team have accepted that the scrutineerers call was legitimate, although the low ride height was not deliberate and that no performance advantage was gained.

Monteiro now sits seventh in the standings, one point behind the independent Honda entry of Norbert Michelisz, with Gabriele Tarquini 20 points ahead in the standings as the Honda trio battle to be the best non-Citroën driver at Qatar on Friday November 27th.