Honda’s Tiago Monteiro says that he is still recovering from his crash at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, as the World Touring Car Championship prepares to take on Russia this weekend.
Monteiro has had just two weeks to recover from his dramatic puncture and accident at the previous round in Germany, with the shunt ruling him out of both races and denting his title challenge.
But the Portuguese star has a strong previous form at the Moscow Raceway, having taken victory in race two last season, as well as qualifying strongly the previous year in 2014.
“I hope to repeat our feat of last year and get another win after the bad luck we suffered on the Nordschleife, because victory was virtually assured before the tyre blew,” said Monteiro. “I want to win in Russia and I think we have the potential to achieve this.
“The Honda Civic’s performance has been optimized and the team is highly motivated. There is no reason not to believe that this is a strong possibility.
Monteiro admits that he has not yet fully recovered from his dramatic shunt, but is optimistic that come the race weekend he will be in a better position.
“Although I’m not 100% fit, I hope to recover a little more by the end of the week,” added the 39-year-old. “The accident, even though it was spectacular, does not alter my goals.
“I’m still a bit sore after my accident, but on Saturday I resumed my full training schedule and I’ll be close to 100% in Russia.
“The bigger issue is the points we lost, and the task now is to dig deep to regain that ground.”