Lessennes to replace Monteiro until a full recovery

Boutsen Ginion Racing announced that Tiago Monteiro will miss the start of the WTCR while his recovery from injury continues.
The Portuguese driver has not raced since a high-speed testing incident last September and despite a strong recovery, he has not yet reached a suitable condition to return to racing. No timeframe has been set for this return.
The team’s test driver Benjamin Lessennes – the 2017 TCR Benelux champion – will deputise for Tiago; starting with this week’s official pre-season test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain.

Monteiro said: "I knew this was a possibility. Although my physical condition has recovered extremely well, the same has not yet happened with my vision and the result is that I cannot yet return to competition. My recovery has been remarkable and the treatment I’ve received from my medical team has been incredible, but I simply cannot take the risk at this stage. Of course, I’m incredibly disappointed. I wanted the effects of the accident to be behind me and to start afresh for the new season. That’s not possible just yet, but I will continue my recovery as hard as I can in the expectation that everything will return to normal soon.”

Lessennes commented: “I am very pleased to make my WTCR debut with Boutsen Ginion Racing, although I wish it had been in happier circumstances. I don’t know how many races I will do before Tiago returns to his car, but I would like to send my best wishes to him for a speedy recovery. I have some good experience of the new Honda Civic Type R TCR from having tested late last year and recently at Zandvoort. I’m confident we can do a good job, although it is clear that the level of competition in WTCR this year will be higher than what we’ve faced previously.”