Tiago Monteiro finished his 2011 FIA World Touring Car Championship campaign off with a points scoring finish during the twenty fourth and final race of the season on the streets of Macau.
The result ensured that the Portuguese driver finished inside the Championship top six as he secured four points for eighth place in the season closing race, having lost out on a points scoring finish in the first race of the weekend, as he out braked himself for the Lisboa corner.
Qualifying saw Monteiro just miss out on a top ten position and thus had to line up eleventh – before qualifying, the SUNRED driver was the fastest of the non-Chevrolet drivers.
Come race day, he decided to risk everything and away from the rolling start, he made up three positions but heading into the braking zone for Lisboa, he was caught out by a patch of oil on the circuit from the previous race.
“It was my mistake. The track was very dirty because of the many accidents that there had been earlier and I braked in the wrong spot,” Tiago declared.
Monteiro recovered from his mistake and worked his way back up the order but he ultimately wasn’t successful in his chase for the top ten and the points, as he explains: “I tried to make up for lost time, but a differential problem that had kept coming back all weekend complicated the task for me, especially in the slow corners.”
After his race one mistake, Monteiro wanted to make amends and he drove a careful race to secure himself four Championship points.
He feels that if he had got qualifying right, he could have challenged for a podium finish: “I gained the most positions possible, but without that disillusion in qualifying, I could certainly have fought for a podium, and so I am a bit disappointed. But there is no point in moaning about it. I feel like I was always one of the fastest SEAT drivers on the track this year and that is significant progress.”
After the twenty four races, Monteiro finished sixth with 117 Championship points and the second SUNRED driver in the Championship standings, after Gabriele Tarquini.