Honda hoping for more success at Civic-favouring Slovakiaring

The Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team are aiming to follow up on Tiago Monteiro’s first win for the team this season in Russia at the Slovakiaring, a circuit which has generally favoured the JAS Motorsport developed Civic in recent years.

In 2013, Gabriele Tarquini scored pole position in the previous generation Honda Civic and took victory in race one against the favoured and more developed RML Chevrolet Cruzes of Yvan Muller and Tom Chilton, while last season, a tactical approach in qualifying saw both Hondas secure the front-row of the race two grid using the reverse qualifying system, which didn’t pay off after the race became the first in the WTCC’s history to be cancelled due to heavy rain.

“The Slovakiaring is an important track for us,” said Tarquini. “In 2013 we had perfect results from qualifying through to both races, so I feel the pressure a little bit more here. Expectation is high for a good performance.

“Russia’s success means we now carry 60kgs ballast, which will make things a little tougher, but I really like this track. It’s a special place and one of my favourites in the season. I think our car should be good here. It’s very technical and easy to make mistakes so we must really focus on set-up.”

Moscow race winner and team-mate Tiago Monteiro added:
“The Slovakiaring is a track where we usually go quite well and it should suit our car…the important thing is we’re keeping on with the development, the hard work and fine-tuning everything. Hopefully we can take advantage on this track. I’m really looking forward to it.”