Tiago Monteiro believes Honda will be stronger in Hungary

Castrol Honda driver Tiago Monteiro was surprised but delighted with the pace of the new Honda Civic Super 2000 TC at the Slovakiaring, with all three cars locking out the top three in qualifying and race one, but believes that the Hungaroring should be an even better circuit for the Japanese marque.

After two tough weekends in Monza and Marrakech, with traffic in qualifying at the Italian circuit followed by a crash in qualifying in Morocco which saw the Portuguese driver forced to start all four races in the mid-field, Monteiro threw off his qualifying woes with P2 on the grid and a solid second place in race one, followed by a leap to front in the race two before a light shove from Yvan Muller on lap two scuppered his chances of a repeat podium.

“We would never have imagined this, a 1-2-3 in qualifying and a 1-2-3 in the race, it’s fantastic for the whole team after all their work and their efforts, so for sure we are very happy and I have to thank all the guys for the great job they’ve done,” said Monteiro to TouringCarTimes.

“In the first race it was a question of not destroying the tyres…I could see I could not pass Gabriele (Tarquini), and I locked two or three times so I thought I’d just slow down the rhythm, just enough for Norbi (Norbert Michelisz) not to attempt any passes, but I was not pushing any harder than this as I was very worried as last year there were three cars with punctures.”

This is the first and only back-to-back weekend of the season for the WTCC, with a one week turnaround before the Hungaroring, which Monteiro and Honda believe will be even more suited to the new Honda.

“We would expect a better package for Hungary to be honest. Before we came to (Slovakia) we thought Hungary would be better for us than here, so if this is good, hopefully Hungary can be even better.”