Tiago Monteiro remains in contention for the 2016 FIA World Touring Car Championship after Honda kept up its record of finishing on the podium in every round of this year’s series in challenging wet weather conditions that befell race day in Hungary.
The Portuguese driver finished third in the main race at the Hungaroring after a solid drive in heavy rain to sit just 12 points away from the championship lead with nine rounds of the WTCC to go
Tiago made a brave choice to start a damp opening race on slick tyres, but saw his gamble backfire when conditions unexpectedly worsened at half-distance. He finished 12th.
His fellow Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team driver Rob Huff opted for a mix of front slicks and rear wets during the opening race, and coped brilliantly with changing conditions to remain inside the top six for the first half of the 14-lap encounter.
As conditions worsened, he fell back to 11th by the finish, but was in much better shape in the main race as he fought his way into second place by half-distance.
Unfortunately, he was given a drive-through penalty for contact made with Yvan Muller as the pair battled for position. He fell to ninth, but was able to recover to sixth by the chequered flag.
Team-mate Norbert Michelisz was cheered on by a crowd exceeding 60,000 adoring Hungarian fans at the circuit near Budapest.
Sadly for Norbert, his fifth place on the opening-race grid counted for nothing as a rare turbo failure led to his retirement on the formation lap, to the disappointment of the thousands of fans in the Hungaroring’s grandstands.
An ultra-quick repair was carried out by the team, but with more than allowed repair time needed for the job, Norbert was forced to start at the back of the grid.
Norbert suffered several heavy contacts during the opening lap, bending the steering on his Civic WTCC and leaving the car challenging to drive.
Despite this, he brilliant carved his way through the field to sixth place, but fell back to 10th on the final half-lap when his left-rear suspension broke as a result of the repeated hits from behind
Norbert’s results mean he leaves his home race lying fifth in the drivers’ championship, one place behind team-mate Rob and three adrift of Tiago.
The 2016 WTCC continues at the Circuit Moulay El Hassan in Marrakech on May 6-8.
Tiago Monteiro, Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team, said: “It’s been a mixed weekend for us. Ultimately, I made the wrong call with the tyres for the opening race and it cost us the chance to score some good points. We didn’t expect the weather to turn as bad as it did, and we’ll learn from it. The third place was a good result in the main race as it keeps us well and truly in the championship fight. I feel a bit sorry for Rob because I don’t like to get a podium finish as a gift, but sometimes you just have to take these gifts when they’re given to you. The most encouraging thing about the weekend is that we’ve shown that wet, or dry, we can be competitive with 70kg of compensation weight on the car, which is better than we expected. This gives us confidence going forwards to Marrakech in May.”
Rob Huff, Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team, said: “I’m very pleased with the pace we’ve shown this weekend. Wet or dry, we’ve been inside the top four on laptimes, and that’s even with the 70kg of compensation weight, so it proves that the testing we did with ballast during the winter has paid off. We gambled on a mixed tyre set-up in the opening race and it didn’t quite work, although I was still the best-placed of the drivers not on full wets. I’m convinced we would have won race two had it not been for a drive-through penalty that I think was extremely harsh. I was faster than Yvan Muller and tried to overtake him at Turn 2. He swept right across my front and braked very hard and I couldn’t avoid touching him and pushing him wide. In my opinion, it was a racing incident. Without that, I’m sure we had the pace to catch and pass Pechito Lopez for the win. Eight points does not at all reflect the speed we showed this weekend.”
Norbert Michelisz, Honda Racing Team JAS, said: “It’s been an incredible weekend for me, both for good and bad reasons. The turbo failed on the formation lap for the opening race, and I can’t even remember the last time something broke on a Honda, such has been the incredible reliability. The team did an incredible job to fix the car for the main race and from the back of the grid, the aim was to score some points. I’d have been pleased with P6 because since I was hit a few times on the first lap, the steering had been bent. But then the left-rear suspension broke on the last lap and I fell back to P10. It’s a shame, but that’s racing. I also want to say thank you to the thousands and thousands of fans that came here in very bad weather to cheer me on. Their support is what makes this event so special for me. It was my dream to give them a podium at least, but there’s always next year.”
Alessandro Mariani, Team Principal, said: “Today has been a huge disappointment because even with 70kg of compensation weight, we showed we had the speed to win. Rob’s pace in the main race was fantastic and the way Norbi came through the field, even though he had a damaged car, was stunning. Other than the pace we showed, the big positive is that we head to Marrakech with Tiago still very close to the lead of the drivers’ championship and with Honda second in the manufacturers’ title race after continuing our record of finishing on the podium at every event this season.”
Daisuke Horiuchi, Large Project Leader WTCC Development, Honda R&D, said: “This weekend we have demonstrated that the Civic WTCC can show front-running pace in either wet or dry conditions, even with 70kg of compensation weight on board. We have scored our eighth podium finish of the season, which means we have been in the top three at every round of the WTCC in 2016 so far and this continues to show the step forward the car has taken since last year. It is a long season with many races still to go and we must keep pushing hard to achieve more race victories and re-gain the lead of the manufacturers’ and drivers’ championships.”
