Barely out of his FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) SEAT Leon, which he used to bring home 16 points last weekend on the Hungaroring, Tiago Monteiro slid behind the wheel of the OAK Racing LMP1 to get ready for the 79th edition of the world's most famous endurance race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which starts Saturday, June 11 at 3:00 p.m.    

The Portuguese driver had barely arrived in France's Sarthe region when he began working with OAK Racing and his crew to get the LMP1 ready to fight for victory in the petrol category. At the end of qualifying, which is not fundamentally important in a 24 hour race,

Tiago Monteiro and his teammates, Guillaume Moreau and Pierre Ragues were ranked 11th, the best standing for a car not driven by a diesel engine. "We are satisfied with this result because we went into qualifying with used tyres and a full fuel load. In fact, we will still have to work on the car's set-up in this specific configuration and we wanted to use all the track time that we could. So, the final result does not reflect our true potential,"

Tiago Monteiro explained. "We still have the warm-up to make improvements to the car. Since I got to Le Mans, I haven't slowed down! But these have been some fantastic workdays. This race is in a class all by itself and I am very happy to be participating in this magnificent event."    

The 24 Hours of Le Mans is full of emotions and adrenaline rushes at every moment, as Tiago can attest, since in night qualifying he suddenly found himself behind the wheel of a car with no headlights. "It was total panic. I was going 320 kmh and suddenly, pitch black! I couldn't see anything, and even worse, the other drivers could not see me either. I was pretty nervous about what might happen but unfortunately it ended well. I hope this incident won't repeat itself during the race because the risks will certainly be greater."    

 The race starts at 3:00 p.m. The race will be broadcast on Eurosport.