Races 1 and 2 of the final round of the 2012 World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) took place on the Guia Circuit in downtown Macau. Under a cloudy sky, the warm up session started at 8:15am and the Civic WTCC maintained good performance from the practice to set the second fastest time (2:31.844) in the buildup to Races 1 and 2.

Race1:

The formation lap of Race 1 got underway at 11:00am with Tiago Monteiro behind the wheel of a Civic WTCC. He got off to a rolling start on the nine-lap race, starting from fifth on the grid and aiming for a podium finish. On the opening lap, Tiago managed to clear the difficult Lisboa Bend in fifth to remain in the top group. He then passed the front-runner on Lap 2 to climb to fourth and breathed down the neck of the car in third. Then on Lap 4, one of the front-runners dropped position due to an accident, allowing Tiago to move up to third. He kept up the chase with the second-placed car over many laps, looking to further improve his position. A three-way fight for the lead continued until the end, where the Civic WTCC driver held on to his third position to gain the first podium place for the Civic WTCC in just its third outing.

Race 2:

In Race 2, Tiago Monteiro in his Civic WTCC got off to a good start from fifth on the grid from a standing start and kept his place on the opening lap (He had been promoted from sixth because a front car could not be fixed and thus, was unable to start the race). However, he was overtaken by two cars at Lisboa Bend and dropped to seventh on Lap 3. When the safety car came in later on Lap 4 due to an accident in front, the Civic WTCC was running in the sixth place. The race resumed with three laps to go after five behind the safety car and again, two front-runners crashed on the very first lap at Lisboa Bend. With the safety car leading the field, the race ended after 11 laps and the Civic WTCC completed the race in fourth.

Driver Tiago Monteiro:

“In Race 1, I had a good start and I was able to overtake the car in front in the early stage of the race. From that moment, I pushed very hard to get an opportunity to pass the Chevrolets but it wasn’t possible. I am very happy to get on the podium in the end though. Race 2 was a bit more difficult at the start and the race in Macau is long and many things could happen, so it was important to finish the race. The entire team deserves this amazing end of the season on the podium. They’ve worked very hard and this is the result of team work.”

Honda Racing Team JAS Team Principal, Alessandro Mariani:

“We are very happy of course with the podium finish, but from my point of view, I am very satisfied with the fact that we finished very close to the works Chevrolet cars. This is a fantastic result because only after two races, we demonstrated that we were able to fight for the lead. Of course, we have a lot of work to do and now we’ll start winter tests with high motivation. Although the car has a strong potential, we’re still learning the car, so we’ll work even harder to prepare for next season.”

Chief Engineer for Civic WTCC Development, Daisuke Horiuchi:

“I am very happy to get such a good result –third place on the podium. What makes me more pleased is that we were able to fight closely with the regular leaders, the Chevrolets. We have improved the car set up step by step to the point where we get this excellent result in the final round of the season. I feel that the effort of the driver and all the team members has been paid off. I have got the positive feeling for next year, but at the same time, I realise even more strongly that this is just the beginning of a tough road before our participation of the whole season next year. We will continue working hard in the close season to achieve a good result right from the beginning of the 2013 WTCC.”

WTCC World Touring Car Championship
Round 12: Macau