Thousands of fans watched Tiago Monteiro get his faltering FIA World Touring Car Championship season firmly back on track with an emotional home win at WTCC Race of Portugal today.

The erstwhile title leader has been on the back foot following exclusion in Morocco and a spectacular crash in Germany. But it all came good for the Honda ace on the challenging streets of Vila Real. Despite the race-long attentions of Citroën’s Yvan Muller, Monteiro, who started from the DHL pole position to win the Main Race from Muller and Honda team-mate Norbert Michelisz.

“This is a moment that I will remember forever, I will keep in my head, in my heart, it was obviously a very emotional and very important moment,” said Monteiro. “I cannot thank everybody enough and there are so many people I need to thank. For this to happen today of course you need a great team behind you, great people, hard work and today the opportunity came to me. To win your home race it’s just unbelievable. I could hear people in the car, I mean we have engines, we have earplugs and I could hear people shouting in the last few laps so that’s the only time that I lose a bit of focus because I could hear them really shouting but it was okay. Of course Yvan was very close the whole race, never let the pressure down, keep me on my toes, I had to push really hard. Of course the start was good, that was the most important moment 90 per cent of the race is there, and yes we did it. I’m going to enjoy this moment for a long time.” 

In the Opening Race, Tom Coronel scored his second victory of 2016 for ROAL Motorsport with Tom Chilton making it two independent WTCC Trophy drivers in the top two. Nicky Catsburg completed the podium for LADA as Sébastien Loeb Racing put the WTCC Teams’ Trophy beyond doubt thanks to Chilton and Mehdi Bennani’s strong performances.

“I knew I had good chance here because I always said Morocco, Vila Real and Japan should be good to me and, until now, everything came out so I’m really happy,” said Coronel. “My race was a little bit under pressure from Tom Chilton, I was a little bit faster in the high speed stuff and finally I could take the points where he could out-brake me with a little distance. To be honest it was for me a reasonably easy drive.”

Rob Huff extended the Honda celebrations by winning the TAG Heuer Best Lap Trophy, the Briton setting a new lap record with a 1m58.385s best in the Main Race. He received a TAG Heuer watch as part of his prize.

Thed Björk, partnered at Polestar Cyan Racing by Robert Dahlgren for the first time, scored points in both races. World champion José María López was bagged a pair of fifth places to maintain his push for a third crown, which continues at home in Argentina in early August.