Tiago Monteiro repeated his Slovakia Ring qualifying performance ahead of the ninth and tenth rounds of the 2012 World Touring Car Championship from the Hungaroring in Hungary.
The tight, twisty and technical circuit tempts drivers into mistakes and with lap times just under 2 minutes a lap, one mistake can cost tenths of a second. Monteiro avoided making any mistakes as he took the #18 SEAT Tuenti Racing Team car into the top ten for the second event in a row.
Despite running with the handicap of using the SUNRED derived engine compared to the SEAT Sport engine, Monteiro used his previous experience of the circuit to secure a fourth and seventh place starting position for the two races.
“We focused our attention and work on qualifying, because we know it is important to be well-placed on the starting grid in order to have a chance of having two good races and securing points,” explained the former Formula One racer.
“I had a good lap and the result is reward for the efforts by the whole team. I am very content because we are closer to the leading drivers,” added Monteiro, who was the quickest driver in the first sector of the lap.
“The pace we manage to maintain over one lap is not the same as what we can sustain in race trim,” explains Monteiro, who faces two races of twelve laps tomorrow. “It will be difficult to hold off the pressure from competitors because they will clearly be faster, but my objective is to resist attacks from my competitors and secure some points.”