Tiago Monteiro and WestCoast Racing secured a stunning victory this afternoon (20 November, 2016) around the streets of Macau with the Portuguese racer taking the chequered flag in the Macau Guia Race 2.0T finale, nine-tenths of a second clear of nearest rival Jean Karl Vernay.
Monteiro, the guest driver with WestCoast Racing for this end of season event, drove a faultless race having made a great getaway from third position on the grid to vault ahead of Vernay and Stefano Comini to take the lead heading to Mandarin.
Monteiro managed to pull a small advantage at the head of the field only for the red flags to fly at the end of the second lap following an incident behind. Following the clear-up, the race effectively became a three-lap shoot out, and Monteiro held his nerve – and his position – to take top honours.
“There weren’t a lot of laps, but the ones we had were very tense and it was a tough race as Macau,” said Monteiro. “From third I knew I had to attack and try something and the start was the key – I focused on that – and I moved to the front. From there I was in the lead and I just had to keep them behind me in the mountain. It was tactical and it was a good win.”
Monteiro’s victory was aided by his third-place finish in the Qualifying race immediately prior to the final round, while teammate Mikhail Grachev recovered from the back of the field with a great recovery drive to seventh position.
For Gianni Morbidelli, sixth on the grid for the Qualifying race, his day ended on the very first lap as he was pushed wide and collected the barriers at Mandarin.
WestCoast Racing Team Manager, James Nixon, said: “It’s nice to see Tiago win as he’s a really nice guy. As for Gianni, well he was pushed wide and that was that while Mikhail kept it clean to make up ground. All in all, I’m happy for Tiago and his engineer. Good job.”