Photo: WTCC Media, Clement Marin

Tiago Monteiro to race at 24 Hours of Le Mans

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SUNRED driver Tiago Monteiro will contest this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans with Oak Racing as a replacement for the injured Matthieu Lahaye on June 11th, between the Hungarian and Czech rounds of the WTCC.

Matthieu Lahaye was injured in qualifying at the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup event at Spa two weeks ago and will be forced to sit out the famour 24 hour endurance event at La Sarthe.

Tiago Monteiro will therefore take over, and will contest Le Mans after all. Monteiro was due to compete in a second Signatech Nissan car in the LMP2 category, but that entry was withdrawn last month leaving the Portuguese driver without a drive.

Monteiro will now be competing in the top level LMP1 category with Oak Racing in the #15 Judd-powered Pescarolo chassis along with Guillaume Moreau and Pierre Ragues.

This will be Monteiro’s second Le Mans start, first competing in 2009 with Oreca, which were then running his car in the WTCC with SEAT.

“Le Mans is a very special race and to do it with OAK Racing is fantastic!,” said Monteiro.

“I would like to thank Jacques Nicolet and François Sicard for offering me such an opportunity. I already know several team members well and appreciate their qualities, whilst also acknowledging that the OAK Racing has a real chance amongst the petrol cars.”

“We do not have much time left in order to prepare but I will rise to the challenge. Hopefully I will be able to make the whole team proud, especially Matthieu Lahaye, to whom I would like to send all my best wishes for a speedy recovery.”