Works Honda World Touring Car Championship pilot Tiago Monteiro completed his and the team’s winter pre-season testing this week with the culmination of two days of testing at the Autodromo di Monza in Italy.
Honda have completed more than 700 kilometres of pre-season testing distance, and ahead of the first round of the season at Monza this weekend the team have been carrying out testing on the fast Italian circuit.
“It’s been a long and intense winter,” said Monteiro. “Over these two days, we mainly focused our work on race simulations and qualifying. I focused on qualifying and Gabriele on race simulations. I think we are on the right track, but we still have work ahead of us. There are countless alternatives that we have not had time to test yet and we’ll look at them next weekend at Monza.
With his first works drive in three years, the WTCC racer is looking forward to finding out how the Civic has improved since its last outing at Macau in 2012 and how the competition matches up.
“After so much hard work and dedication, we are really looking forward to the competition we measure and see where we stand,” added the Portugese. “The first race in Monza will be crucial to assess the quality of our work and identify areas for improvement. This year, the development will be constant. We are all, without exception, highly motivated and confident.”
Monteiro and team-mate Gabriele Tarquini will take to the circuit for the first free practice session at 0900 CET on Saturday 23rd March (0800 GMT).