Former World Touring Car Championship leader Tiago Monteiro was very vocal about his thoughts regarding control tyre supplier Yokohama, in respect of the right front puncture that he suffered during the opening race of the weekend at the Nürburgring.
The Castrol Honda Racing driver was in seventh place, before the puncture took him out of the race, resulting in a right side hit on his Civic Type-R at the barriers on Metzgefeld.
“I’m furious! We can get hurt and I was really hurt last year. It was lucky for me and Girolami. I hope he’s okay. It’s unacceptable,” said the 40-year-old, who ended up losing his lead to main race winner Nicky Catsburg, having not scored all weekend.
Monteiro explained that when the tyre deflated, he had no warning, unlike his incident last season, which saw four-time champion Yvan Muller be collected as a result.
“There was nothing, as it happened as soon as I took that left fast corner, I felt right away, so I tried to brake a bit early but it was too late. I’m lucky it wasn’t a slower part this time, but still I even touched the wall.”
Monteiro was still able to start from the pit lane after frantic repairs to his Honda during the allocated repair time, but it came to no avail for all concerned, despite having finished 13th at the end of the main race.
“It’s dangerous, and you can’t play with lives. We are taking risks, but they do have to do a better than job than this and have a proper talk.”