Tiago Monteiro once again on the podium at Monza

Continuing on his excellent performances in qualifying, where he secured a pole position, Tiago Monteiro climbed the 3rd step on the podium in the 5th race of the FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) at the Autodromo di Monza today. Two hours later, the driver of the SEAT León #18 car added a 4th place finish to his Italian haul.

Behind the untouchable Chevrolets, which had a 40bhp power advantage, Tiago was the best driver in the race, and particularly of the SEAT delegation. This was his best points total so far this season for a race weekend (27 points) and he moved up to 4th in the overall ranking (58 points), where he is the best representative for SEAT and his team, Sun-Red. On a circuit where FIA WTCC sedans reach very high speeds, and where the SEAT León TDI did not have the latest technical weapons against the new turbo engines, Tiago Monteiro managed to overcome adversity and seized every opportunity that came his way. At the start of the first race, he moved up one place after the first chicane, but lost the 4th place in the first section of the final lap. In the famous Parabolica, Tiago outflanked Michelisz by bravely moving on the inside the BMW, which he overtook on the finish line by 3 milliseconds. "I had a good start, I moved up one place and I managed to hold onto 4th place for most of the race before securing another place thanks to the heated battle between the Chevrolet drivers. But BMW was also very impressive and I fell back to 4th place. I didn’t give up, I gave my all, and the SEAT León did too, and this 3rd place finish is a brilliant result, particularly on a circuit where we were afraid it might be difficult," Tiago Monteiro declared.

In the second race, as he expected, Tiago did not manage to maintain the benefit of his pole position against the power of the Chevrolets and BMWs. Yet he used his equipment to its fullest, to have a best race lap 5 hundredths of a second better than the race winner. "I knew I couldn’t fight on an even footing, and so my ambition was to cross the finish line in 5th place. The final result was better, and so this 4th place finish is more than satisfactory. The team is also very happy with our success at Monza," Tiago concluded.

The SEAT Sun-Red team will soon be testing the SEAT 1.6 liter Turbo, with the objective of unveiling it in competition in the next FIA WTCC races in Hungary, June 4 & 5.