Honda’s 2016 FIA World Touring Car Championship campaign draws to a conclusion on Friday night in what is set to be an all-action season finale under floodlights at the Losail Circuit in Qatar.
All three factory drivers; Tiago Monteiro, Norbert Michelisz and Rob Huff, are in with a chance of finishing second in the drivers’ championship and will be making an all-out attack on the 5.4-km racetrack as they bid to do just that
Tiago, who has won twice and taken seven podiums in 2016, is experiencing the best season of his WTCC career. He became the first Portuguese driver to lead an FIA World Championship after his early-season victory in Slovakia and currently lies third overall.
He is 21 points from the runner-up spot in the championship with 55 available from the Middle-East double-header.
Norbert is 14 points behind Tiago in fourth, but is one of the most in-form drivers in the WTCC. The Hungarian has finished on the podium at five of the past six rounds and led an all-Honda podium at Motegi, Japan, in September.
He has fond memories of Losail, having rounded off last season with a third-place finish there.
Rob, the 2012 WTCC champion, began his Honda career with a spectacular victory in France in March and has added four further podium finishes to leave himself fifth in the standings – 10 points behind Norbert.
Tiago, Rob and Norbert have all been boosted by the news that the Civic WTCCs will carry 30kg of compensation weight in Qatar – a 30kg reduction on the amount of ballast carried in China at the most recent event.
Tiago Monteiro, Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team: “My aim at the start of the season was to finish in the top three of the championship, but while right now I’m third in the points, we’ll all try our absolute hardest to take second place, even though the points gap will be tough to overcome. Last year the Qatar weekend didn’t go especially well for me, but I still scored points twice, and the package we’ve developed with Honda this year is a significant step forwards. I arrive in Qatar on a high having just won the Macau Guia Race and this will give me even more strength and confidence to end my season on a high.”
Rob Huff, Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team: “The eight-week gap since the last round in China has felt like an eternity and I’m ultra-keen to get back behind the wheel under the floodlights in Qatar. The Hondas have had a lot of compensation weight over the past two events and that has had a major impact on our pace. In Qatar we’ll have 30kg and the last time we carried that kind of weight, we won. That gives us all confidence of a strong end to the season. Will it be enough to enable me to finish second in the championship? I don’t know, but I won’t stop trying until I see the chequered flag.”
Norbert Michelisz, Honda Racing Team JAS: “The second half of the season has gone very well for me and I’ve had lots of podium finishes as well as my first win as a factory driver at Honda’s home race in Japan. We’ve definitely maximised the opportunity to finish in the top three at every round by making sure our qualifying strategy was right. With less compensation weight than we’ve had recently, I think our strategy will be a little different, but our aim will be the same and that’s to win. Last year I made the podium in Qatar, and the Civic is a stronger package than it was 12 months ago, so I think things are looking pretty good.”
