Photo: Honda Racing Team

Belgian media states Benjamin Lessennes is in for Monteiro in Morocco

The Belgian newspaper La Dernière Heure has claimed that Tiago Monteiro will not make the start of the 2018 World Touring Car Cup season, and will be replaced by the Boutsen Ginion Racing team’s test driver and current TCR Benelux champion Benjamin Lessennes.

La Dernière Heure states it is able to confirm the team will run the 18-year-old “until further notice”, and says Monteiro’s recent outings behind the wheel of the Honda Civic TCR at the tests at Monza and Zandvoort were for promotional purposes.

Monteiro was sidelined from the 2017 World Touring Car Championship after a crash in testing at the Barcelona circuit in August, while leading the championship. The next scheduled pre-season test is at the same circuit later next week, before the cars are shipped to the venue for the first race a week later.

Honda Racing has made no statement about any decision as yet, with it understood the intention is for Monteiro to race unless he is medically deemed unfit to do so ahead of the season opener at Marrakech in Morocco on April 7th.