Honda were streets ahead at the FIA World Touring Car Championship’s Race of Portugal as Tiago Monteiro claimed a commanding victory in Vila Real.
After taking pole position in front of his home crowd, the Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team driver, who lives in nearby Porto, made a superb getaway as the lights went out for the main race and stayed ahead throughout the 14-lap event on the demanding 4.8km street circuit.
It was Tiago’s second victory of the season and the third for Honda. It was also the ninth win of his WTCC career.
Behind him, fellow factory Honda racers Norbert Michelisz and Rob Huff made it three Civic WTCCs in the top four, despite the cars being heavier than at any other point in 2016 with 60kg of compensation weight on board.
Behind Norbert, who claimed his fourth podium finish in six races, Rob set the fastest race lap of the weekend and claimed the TAG Heuer Hard Charger Award.
Tiago added a 10th place in the reversed-grid opening race with Norbert eighth and Rob, one of only two drivers to make an on-track passing move on race-day, as he climbed a spot from his grid position to finish sixth.
The weekend results mean that Tiago has climbed to second place in the drivers’ championship with Norbert sixth and Rob seventh. Honda maintained second place in the manufacturers’ standings.
The WTCC takes a six-week summer break before resuming at Termas de Rio Hondo in Argentina on August 6-7.
Tiago Monteiro, Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team, said: “This has been an incredible day and one I’ll keep in my mind and in my heart for the rest of my life. To win a world championship race in front of your own fans gives me incredible feelings and the support I saw out on the podium was like nothing I’d ever experienced before. The key to the victory today was the start; I was focused on making the best getaway I could because that first few seconds is worth 90 per cent of the race. I made a good start and was able to control things. We’re now P2 in the championship and although we’re a long way behind P1, we’ll never give up.”
Rob Huff, Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team, said: “Huge congratulations to Tiago. Racing in front of your home crowd when there’s that level of expectation is incredibly difficult. To take pole and a victory is a fantastic achievement and I hope he enjoys it. I’m pleased with my own performance because not many people overtook a car today and I did, but ultimately I lost the chance to win with a small mistake in qualifying. It’s also fantastic for the team because it shows that we’ve stepped up our performance and can now win races even with 60kg of compensation weight. It makes me very confident for the rest of the season.”
Norbert Michelisz, Honda Racing Team JAS, said: “I’m pleased with another podium finish, my sixth of the season, and it shows that the team has done a fantastic job to be able to achieve the results we have had this weekend even with 60kg of ballast. My chance to do better than third was at the start, but I wasn’t quite able to pass anybody, and with overtaking so difficult on this circuit, I just focused on finishing third. Far more important than my result though is Tiago’s victory and I can’t believe the reaction of the fans, which was fantastic.”
Alessandro Mariani, Team Principal, said: “I’m absolutely delighted; not just for Tiago, but for the whole team. In Russia we had the fastest car, but were not able to show the true potential of the Civic in race conditions because of the crazy weather conditions. But this weekend, with a lot of weight, we showed we can be competitive on any kind of circuit. The first target was to get all three cars into Q3 and we did, and then the aim was to win, and now we have done this too. Everyone has worked so hard to achieve this and we all share in this win. I also want to thank the Portuguese fans for their incredible support; the only other time I’ve seen a podium like this was when Ayrton Senna won the 1991 Brazilian Grand Prix in his McLaren-Honda. It’s a very special day.”
Daisuke Horiuchi, Large Project Leader WTCC Development, Honda R&D, said: “Today has been a very good day for Honda. Tiago has taken a fantastic victory, we’ve had three drivers finish in the top four in the main race and we’ve scored a lot of points. The support for the whole team has been very good; at Honda we race with a lot of emotion and we saw that from the fans here this weekend, which was really nice to see.
