Tiago Monteiro leaves Slovakia with one-point championship lead

The two protagonists of the weekend at Slovakiaring were Honda Racing’s Tiago Monteiro and Citroën Racing’s José María López, who took one win apiece. The Portuguese now leads the championship, whereas the defending champion took an unexpected win despite a problem on the rear left of his C-Elysée.

“It was an amazing weekend,” commented Monteiro. “The start was very important and I was right behind Mehdi (Bennani) as soon as the lights went out. I just pushed from the beginning, knowing that the Citroëns were very strong, and Mehdi was driving perfectly, he made no mistakes whatsoever. I tried hard to find a weak spot, but it was tricky. I managed to find a way through at Turn 8 towards the end of the race, although the tyre degradation on the C-Elysée was not as we had expected. We had to go for it, I did a very good pass and that was great.”

Monteiro also took a podium in the main race, finishing second to his rival José María López and therefore keeping the championship lead by a single point over the Argentinian: “I started seventh and I was looking for points, because the car was very good as I knew from the first race. The good start gave me some good opportunities, and then it was a very interesting fight with Nicky (Catsburg) and José María López.”

The Portuguese driver could smell victory, but gladly settled for second as it meant an almost perfect weekend: “You always hope you can do it (winning), especially when I saw Catsburg was suffering from tyre degradation and Pechito also had problems I thought I could take that double victory. I was really trying hard to win again, I wanted to take advantage of the others’ problem, but overall I can’t complain, it was a great weekend for me. We recovered from a tough qualifying and we learned a lot again. We know the story might be different with the weights coming into play in Hungary, but for now let’s just enjoy the moment, I’m really happy.”

José María López had a huge problem in his left rear. The cause of the issue is still unknown, but the double World Champion genuinely thought his race was going to end prematurely: “I have to thank the team for giving me not only a quick car, but mainly a strong car. Everything was normal, the start was very good and it was important to pass Yvan (Muller), otherwise it would have been a different story. It felt normal in the first two laps, I managed to pull away from Nicky (Catsburg), but then on the third lap I felt a huge vibration and a noise of metal coming from the rear left.”

López thought the problem was terminal, but he soon realised his car was still quick and decided to try everything to bag points: “Every single time I turned to the right I thought my race was over, but then I tried to calm down and get my concentration back. I just wanted it (the race) to finish, but then Nicky slowed down a lot and my car was still quite quick, so I thought I’d try, and if something got broken then so be it.”

At the end of the race López realised how close he was to retirement: “It was a gift to finish the race itself, so winning is amazing. Today I was very lucky, I saw the rim after the race and it was completely broken, very close to destruction. It was quite tense but I enjoyed it a lot. It’s a miracle to have finished.”

The Argentinian also commented on Honda’s good showing in the two opening races of the year, with the Japanese manufacturer leading both the drivers’ and the manufacturers’ championship: “Honda did a fantastic job this weekend, Tiago (Monteiro) leads the championship, so congratulations to them. We will see how the game changes with the weights coming into play, and it will be time for us to catch up. They took advantage of our extra weight, but the important thing was to bag some good points and winning today was amazing.”

Monteiro has 77 points to his name and leads by one point over López, with Norbert Michelisz in third for Honda a further 26 points down. Rob Huff is fourth, just a point behind the Hungarian, with WTCC Trophy driver Mehdi Bennani in fifth a further three points adrift.