Tiago Monteiro “I will attack whoever I have to attack”

Tiago Monteiro qualified third for the Guia Race 2.0T at Macau, unable to do anything about the incredible pace of the Leopard Racing Volkswagens in the wet, but the Portuguese driver says that although he doesn’t want to get involved in the title fight between Leopard and Craft-Bamboo Racing, his objective is to win on Sunday.

Monteiro had missed out on all Friday running after a turbo issue with his WestCoast Racing Honda Civic TCR, but this didn’t slow him down in the first, dry, part of qualifying, as he finished third behind Pepe Oriola and Jean-Karl Vernay.

In the wet, he emerged as best-of-the-rest behind the Volkswagens, two seconds slower than pole-sitter Vernay but safely in third, over 1.7 seconds clear of the LMS Racing SEAT of Antti Buri.

“I was looking forward to getting back on the track after the lack of running yesterday,” said Monteiro to TouringCarTimes.

“When it started to rain it changed the whole thing, as the downside is I don’t know the car in the rain; my engineer also doesn’t have a lot of experience on this car in the wet. We did some changes, but not as many as (Leopard Racing) did.

“I just did my lap, I realised they were fast and I wasn’t going to catch them, I thought if I was in the top five, I’d be OK for the race.”

Monteiro will start third for the first race at 10am on Sunday, with team-mate Gianni Morbidelli sixth, with the Hondas having shown great pace in the dry practice sessions.

“It’s difficult to overtake here,” said Monteiro thinking ahead to the race. “I’m not here to make any confusion in the championship, but I will attack whoever I have to attack. I’m here for a reason, Honda want me here, not to be another number, but to try and win. Of course I’ll try and avoid destroying anyone’s championship.”