Tiago Monteiro confident after test session

Honda Racing Team JAS driver Tiago Monteiro is confident after setting a time just over one second behind the championship leading Cruzes in the first test official session for the new Honda Civic Super 2000 TC.

Monteiro, driving the sole Honda Civic for the finale three rounds of the 2012 season was just 1.018 seconds behind three-time champion Yvan Muller’s Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T, and only two-hundredths of a second behind Tom Coronel’s seventh placed BMW in the 30 minute test.

“It was not bad. To be one second behind the Chevrolet cars after only a couple of months of work is a good starting point,” said Monteiro.” Especially when we see that they have improved last year’s track record.”

“It feels good to be here, comparing ourselves with the rest of the field. We’ll stick to our plan of developing the car, but it was nice to be in the middle of the field. We have some additional information now, and we will analyse it to see where we may improve.”