Montoya: My life doesn’t revolve on Triple Crown

Juan Pablo Montoya says has no priority in securing the Triple Crown despite preparing for his maiden Le Mans 24 Hours with a chance to complete the feat this weekend.

Montoya lines up for his Le Mans debut with the possibility of becoming just the second driver in history after Graham Hill to complete the Triple Crown – winning the Monaco Grand Prix, Indianapolis 500 and Le Mans.

While focus has largely centred  on Fernando Alonso’s attention aiming for the feat, with the two-time Formula 1 world champion preparing for his Le Mans debut in pole position for the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing squad, Montoya is a step closer than the Spaniard with wins in Monaco and Indianapolis to his name.

Despite only needing Le Mans to complete his set, Montoya says achieving the Triple Crown isn’t in his mind as a target.

“If the opportunity would come [for the Triple Crown], yeah that’s great, but if it doesn’t it is okay too,” Montoya said. “My life doesn’t really revolve around the Triple Crown. My life revolves around winning races.

“I just want to win races as I’ve never done Le Mans before and I thought it would be a lot of fun to experience it so that’s why I’ve come here.”

Montoya will start from 24^th on the grid in the #32 United Autosport Ligier with fellow co-drivers Will Owen and Hugo de Sadeleer and while seeing his chances for victory in LMP2 as slim the former Formula 1 star is still relishing his Le Mans debut.

“The track was a lot better than expected. It really surprised me how cool it is,” he said. “It is a challenging track and changes a lot.

“It has got what the Formula 1 tracks are missing with very few run-off areas and a lot of places where you are going to pay a high price if you get it wrong so if you have places like that it makes it a lot of fun.”