Tiago Monteiro blames ‘overconfidence’ for missed pole chance

Tiago Monteiro was last in the Honda Racing 1-2-3 of qualifying at Marrakech and blames himself for an excess of confidence, which led him to making a mistake and losing the chance to score an important pole position.

“I have to say I was a little bit overconfident, I just pushed too hard and locked up at Turn 7, which easily cost me three tenths, which is quite a lot. I am angry with myself, but all in all the most important thing is Honda had a 1-2-3 in qualifying,” said Monteiro.

The Honda driver was nonetheless pleased with the overall result for the team, stating that the drivers had joked about a potential 1-2-3 ahead of the qualifying session.

“It’s definitely great for the whole team,” said the Portuguese driver. “It’s amazing how all the hard work is paying off. We knew we had the potential to do a 1-2-3 today, we even joked about it, because we felt comfortable with the car and had the pace to do it, it was just a matter of putting the lap together.”

When asked about his situation in the championship as the Portuguese now is 11 points shy of leader José María López, the Honda driver replied: “We obviously know we had a good performance here and it is a good opportunity to score points. Pechito (José María López) is never far behind, even when things don’t go his way he is still close. It would have been better if I had pole position to run away from him a bit of course, but I know we will have two difficult races tomorrow. We need to finish the races and be smart.”

Monteiro will have title rival López next to him in both of tomorrow’s races, starting alongside the Argentinian on fourth row in the opening race.