Tiago Monteiro says he would ‘never have imagined’ being able to score a double podium in the World Touring Car Championship races at Monza, after he left Italy with a third and second place respectively.
The factory Honda team had predicted ahead of the event that the Civic would struggle at the high-speed Monza circuit, due to the need for a powerful engine and slippery, aerodynamic body shape.
However the Civics went well throughout the weekend, with Monteiro qualifying his car in second overall, just three tenths of the pace-setting Volvo.
In the end the Portuguese driver was able to secure two podiums to extend his lead at the top of the drivers’ championship standings to 15 points over Volvo’s Thed Björk.
Monteiro admits that whilst the results were a surprise, he was left with a big smile on his face knowing that he could take the fight to his rivals even at circuits which should not have suited the Civic in the past.
“It’s really a big surprise,” said Monteiro to TouringCars.Net of his pace. “It’s not like it’s one of those cases where you sometimes bullshit a little bit and try to downplay things, we were really, really concerned about this track. This one and the [Nürburgring] Nordschleife are the tracks where we thought it was going to be even harder to get into the top ten, maybe.
“It was a great surprise when we started the weekend so strong. I would never, ever have imagined that. The performance was good and so the podiums are genuine.
“Yes, there were some crashes in the first race, but the pace was there in both races. It really means that the whole package worked well.
“With the improvements on the engine and aerodynamics, now that we put everything together, which we didn’t have at the test, we managed to do a good lap in qualifying and everything worked out OK.”
Monteiro explained that one of the reasons why the Hondas weren’t able to show their true pace in the official pre-season test at Monza was due to the new parts being spread over the three factory JAS Motorsport cars.
“We had the [new] parts, but separated over all three cars, because there were not enough parts. One car was trying one thing, another car another thing and the third car something else.
“We had a small idea how each development worked; engine, aerodynamics and chassis. We put everything together in Marrakech, but there you cannot get a proper reading of performance. But here, we realised that it’s all good.
“I’ve been in this project for five years, and we always had to fight with a lack of top speed – that was always a problem on this project and with this car.
“Now I had a huge smile in the car, because I could pull away from the Citroën and it’s fantastic. It’s not just because we have more power than last year, but the whole package seems to work.”