No team orders at Honda for battle for second in the championship

The boss of the Honda WTCC team has said they won’t be implementing team orders to ensure Tiago Monteiro or any of their drivers get the full focus for points in the battle for second in the drivers’ championship, after Citroën’s Yvan Muller drew level with Monteiro in Japan after José María López handed the Frenchman the main race victory.

Monteiro is now tied on 199 points in the drivers’ championship with Muller, while his Honda team-mates Rob Huff and Norbert Michelisz are just 21 and 27 points behind with 110 left to play for from the remaining two rounds of the season.

Honda Europe motorsport manager William De Braekeleer said the drivers are free to help each other if they want to, but the team won’t instruct the drivers to help Monteiro in his fight for best-of-the-rest behind provisional champion José María López.

“It was a very nice gesture from Pechito (López), and if that’s the way they want to manage second position, we could do the same game, but it was not our intention from the beginning,” he said to TouringCarTimes.

“For the rest of the season we are concentrating on overall wins, and if we can do it in a way we can help Tiago, then why not? But it’s a decision for the drivers, I don’t want to impose that on a driver.

“If Tiago gets it, it will be a truly deserved win, not because he was given a win.”

Monteiro hopes his team-mates will help him fight for second position, just as López and Muller agreed without team guidance to work together on Sunday.

“It doesn’t make a huge difference if you finish second, third or fourth, but it’s still nice,” said Monteiro to TouringCarTimes. “I’ve had many great seasons where I was fighting for second or third, and then something goes wrong and always finish around fourth or fifth, so I’d like to finish P2 in the championship…I have no idea (if Rob and Norbert will help me). There’s a good spirit between us so I hope they will help me if they can.”

2012 champion Rob Huff said the main focus for the rest of the year was achieving the best results for Honda.

“Citroën can play that game, and we could play that game, but it’s a little bit unfair at the moment when we’re all still in contention,” he said to TouringCarTimes.

“The problem is this weekend we’ve all taken points away from each other, which doesn’t help our individual positions in the championship. Nothing’s been discussed so we will continue as we are, but it all depends how badly we want to finish second in the championship.

“I’ve finished second twice and third twice in the championship, but nobody remembers who finished second. Ultimately I can’t win it so I want to do the best job I can and take the most wins for Honda.”