Tiago Monteiro left the third weekend of the 2012 World Touring Car Championship with another two points to his name but left bemoaning the lack of performance in the SunRed 1.6litre turbocharged engine.
An up and down weekend for Monteiro saw him fail to finish round five due to a transmission issue on the #18 SEAT Leon. Round six was kinder as Monteiro brought the car home in ninth for another two Championship points.
“I managed to secure points and that is a good thing, even if the result does not reflect our potential, because the crew did good work all weekend long. We managed to improve the engine even though it does not have enough performance to enable me to fight it out with my direct competitors,” explains Monteiro.
Having survived all of the chaos of the rolling start, Monteiro was running a solid seventh at the end of the opening lap of round five. The nature of the Marrakech street circuit and the kerbs meant that the transmission couldn’t cope and this forced Monteiro into retirement.
Round six saw Monteiro line up second on the grid but he was soon falling down the order as cars behind him had more power and he was unable to defend his position. He finished the race ninth overall.
“We did not have a good enough top speed,” explains Monteiro. “I was hoping for a better result, but I had a hard time containing my competitors. The race was interesting, with many nice battles and points at the finish line.”
Next up for Monteiro is a trip to Slovakia over the 28/29 April for rounds seven and eight of the 2012 World Touring Car Championship and Monteiro doesn’t know whether he will have the new SEAT derived engine or not.
“We will continue to do our best and even if we don’t have the new engine yet, we will do the most we can to secure points,” concluded the Portuguese driver.