Raphael Reis and Lucas Foresti gave the brand new CUPRA Leon VZ its first win in TCR South America in the season-opening endurance race at Interlagos in Brazil.
Brazilians Reis and Foresti had qualified just 0.044 seconds behind pole-sitters Juan Manuel Casella and Ignacio Montenegro in Saturday’s multi-part qualifying sessions, which saw each driver set a time in two separate sessions before their times were aggregated together to decide the grid.
The race was composed of two 40-minute sessions, split by a 20-minute race neutralisation period.
At the start, Casella held the lead in his Squadra Martino Honda Civic, and prevailed at the front for the opening ten minutes of the race.
However, Foresti, the second W2 CUPRA driven by Felipe Lapenna and PMO Racing’s Celso Neto, who passed Rodrigo Baptista for fourth on lap two, soon closed in on the early leader.
On lap eight, Foresti moved past Casella for the lead, with both Lapenna and Neto following past 11 laps later, despite Casella putting up a staunch defence.
The race was then neutralised after 40 minutes with Foresti leading Lapenna, Neto and Casella, as the cars pulled into the pits for a controlled refuelling and driver change period.
At the restart behind the safety car, with the top cars now driven by Reis, Galid Osman, Pedro Cardoso and Montenegro, things were relatively calm.
Reis would lead the entire second 40-minute stint, and went on to claim his sixth win in the series, albeit just 0.763 seconds ahead of Cardoso’s Peugeot, who had made short work of passing Osman early on in the second part of the race.
Osman slipped further back when he was passed by Montenegro on lap 28, but ten laps later he muscled back past the Honda driver and reigning champion with some contact.
The race was then neutralised seven minutes from the chequered flag when Rafael Suzuki crashed his Lynk & Co into the barriers, requiring a short safety car period.
With five minutes left, racing resumed, but there was a crash involving four cars on the run to the first corner.
Montenegro had moved to defend from Osman, who in turn had moved over to defend from Carlos Bueno in the Peugeot and was also under pressure from Facundo Marques’ Toyota.
As the quartet braked for the corner, Osman and Bueno clashed, sending the CUPRA into the barriers on the inside before bouncing back into Montenegro, whilst Marques escaped undamaged.
Montenegro limped back to the pits with broken left-rear suspension, whilst Marques had front-end damage, whilst Osman’s car was left embedded in the barriers at Turn 1, eventually recovered under yellow flags.
Montenegro was later excluded from the result for being deemed to be the cause of the crash which ended the race of Osman and hindered Bueno.
There were no notable changes thereafter, with Reis winning from Cardoso, as Guilherme Salas completed the podium in the car shared with compatriot Guilherme Reischl, the third W2 driver benefitting the most from the late race dramas, including gaining seven places in the final four laps alone, having started the second half of the race down in 12th.
Cobra Racing’s Thiago Vivacqua and Nicolas costa were fourth, ahead of the only PMO Lynk & co to finish the race of Lucas Fecury and Arthur Leist in fifth.
Baptista ultimately retired his Toyota after 30 laps, having earlier been forced to pit on lap five with a punctured front-left tyre.
The next TCR south America round takes place at Cascavel on 26 May, where TCR Brazil will hold two separate races of its own.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 77 |  |
Raphael REIS | |
Lucas FORESTI | W2 Pro GP | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 46 | 1:39:16.033 | 1:44.404 | 2 | |
| 2 | 43 | |
Pedro CARDOSO | |
Celso NETO | PMO Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 46 | 0.763 | 1:44.680 | 5 | |
| 3 | 37 | |
Guilherme REISCHL | |
Guilherme SALAS | W2 Pro GP | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 46 | 8.229 | 1:45.606 | 8 | |
| 4 | 7 | |
Thiago VIVACQUA | |
Nicolas COSTA | Cobra Racing Team | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 46 | 9.362 | 1:45.980 | 11 | |
| 5 | 55 | |
Lucas FECURY | |
Arthur LEIST | PMO Full Time Sports | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 46 | 9.437 | 1:45.874 | 10 | |
| 6 | 47 |  |
Norberto FONTANA | |
Felipe MALUHY | Cobra Racing Team | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 46 | 12.961 | 1:46.111 | 12 | |
| 7 | 16 | |
Juan Ángel ROSSO | |
Facundo MARQUES | Paladini Racing | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 46 | 14.117 | 1:45.580 | 6 | |
| 8 | 88 | |
Werner NEUGEBAUER | |
Carlos BUENO | PMO Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 46 | 2:01.156 | 1:44.767 | 16 | |
| 9 | 5 | |
Fabián YANNANTUONI |  |
Enric BORDAS COTES | Paladini Racing | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 45 | + 1 LAP | 1:45.312 | 9 | |
| 10 | 13 | |
Fabricio PEZZINI | |
Juan Pablo BESSONE | Paladini Racing | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 45 | + 1 LAP | 1:46.594 | 14 | |
| 11 | 28 | |
Galid OSMAN | |
Felipe LAPENNA | W2 Pro GP | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 43 | + 3 LAPS | 1:45.027 | 3 | |
| 12 | 27 | |
Marcos REGADAS | |
Rafael SUZUKI | PMO Full Time Sports | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 41 | + 5 LAPS | 1:45.909 | 7 | |
| EX | 60 |  |
Juan Manuel CASELLA | |
Ignacio MONTENEGRO | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 44 | + 2 LAPS | 1:44.631 | 1 | |
| R | 34 | |
Fabio CASAGRANDE | |
Franco COSCIA | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 33 | DNF | 1:46.622 | 13 | |
| R | 3 | |
Rodrigo BAPTISTA | |
Diego NUNES | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 30 | DNF | 1:45.111 | 4 | |
| R | 15 | |
Enrique MAGLIONE | |
Rodrigo ARAMENDIA | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 24 | DNF | 1:47.093 | 15 |