Tiago Monteiro on his crash: “Blood clots affected my eyes and nerves”

The World Touring Car Championship drivers’ points leader Tiago Monteiro has explained that as well as concussion, complications from bloodclots affecting his vertebra, eyes and nerves were the immediate concert after his 255km/h crash at the Circuit de Catalunya last month.

The Portuguese driver is busy preparing for his WTCC return next week at Ningbo, China, and has been describing his accident and the events that have followed in a series of interviews released by the championship promoter.

“The main issue of course I had at the beginning was the concussion in my head with two blood clots,” said Monteiro. “Then of course the vertebras and of course the eyes and the nerves that were squeezed by the blood. Those parts were the ones that could affect my racing.

“If there was just a little more blood or a bigger tear in my neck I would have been unable to move basically or even worse. I was very lucky. Doctors were confident I was very close to permanent damage or even death. In the end those cars are so strong, the car saved my life to be honest with hardly any chassis movement.

“Of course there was a lot of destruction, but the way the car was built was really resistant. It’s actually your body that cannot sustain so much force. I hit so many things in side and got hurt but nothing came to me or got destroyed to a point that I could get more hurt. Everything did its job to protect me. All-in-all it could have been much worse. I am here today, I can walk, I can move and in a few of weeks I will be 100 per cent ready to race, with my family at the end of the day is what matters.“