Leonel Pernía extends TCR South America lead in Uruguay

Honda YPF Racing’s Leonel Pernía extended his TCR South America championship lead in Uruguay, taking a victory in race one and fourth in race two to more than double his advantage.

Race One

Nelson Piquet Jr had secured pole position in Saturday’s qualifying session, the Brazilian’s second successive pole, with Pernía alongside on the front row of the grid, but at the start of the opening race it was the latter who made the best start, leaping into the lead before the first corner.

Further back, Mariano Pernía stalled his Honda from third on the grid, dropping to the back of the field.

Leonel Pernía led Piquet by a steady margin in the first laps, with W2 Pro GP’s Fabricio Pezzini in third ahead of team-mate Raphael Reis.

PM Racing’s Pedro Cardoso ran in fifth early on, whilst further back Fabián Yannantuoni had to retire on lap eight with a technical issue whilst running in eighth.

There were few changes in the early phase of the race, before the safety car was called upon on lap 11 due to an errant tyre stack.

PMO Racing’s Luís Ramírez then retired to the pits on lap 12 with a technical problem, losing tenth place.

A lap after the restart, Juan Ángel Rosso overtook Cardoso for fifth, but there were no changes after that and Leonel Pernía went on to win his fourth race of the season by just under half a second from team-mate Piquet, with Pezzini completing the podium as the best of the CUPRA drivers.

Race one result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	44			Leonel PERNÍA	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	20	27:16.200	1:17.533	2
2	33			Nelson PIQUET JR	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	20	0.423	1:17.681	1
3	113			Fabricio PEZZINI	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	20	1.374	1:17.740	4
4	77			Raphael REIS	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	20	1.945	1:17.660	5
5	16			Juan Ángel ROSSO	Paladini Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	20	6.182	1:18.470	7
6	1			Pedro CARDOSO	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	20	7.025	1:18.149	6
7	85			Tiago PERNÍA	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	20	9.121	1:18.869	8
8	66			Genaro RASETTO	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	20	9.555	1:18.610	9
9	8			Joaquín CAFARO	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	20	11.828	1:19.060	11
10	19			Enzo GIANFRATTI	Porthack Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	20	14.695	1:19.448	12
11	55			Mariano PERNÍA	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	20	14.933	1:18.463	3
12	88			Adrián CHIRIANO	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	20	27.885	1:20.419	13
13	23			María NIENKÖTTER	Cobra Racing	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	20	28.282	1:19.480	14
14	3			Luis RAMÍREZ	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	18	+ 2 LAPS	1:19.241	10
R	5			Fabián YANNANTUONI	Paladini Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	8	DNF	1:18.249	15

Race Two

Before the race even began there was drama for reigning champion Cardoso, who failed to take his fifth-place grid spot and had to pit for a last-minute turbo change.

Ramírez started the reverse-grid race from pole position, but fellow front-row starter Gennaro Rasetto appeared to get a better start and leaped into the lead.

Behind them, Tiago Pernía challenged for second through the opening corners but had to back out, allowing Rosso to claim third in the Turn 3 braking zone.

Rosso then moved up to second on the next lap when Ramírez went wide exiting Turn 3, the Paladini Racing driver moving into second on the outside line after some light contact approaching Turn 4.

Rasetto continued to lead, but was handed a drive-through penalty on lap three for a false start, which the Argentine duly served at the end of the lap, handing the lead to Rosso.

Ramírez continued to lsip back, and on lap seven was running in sixth when he was hit by Enzo Gianfratti, the Brazilian having come from two places back to optimistically dive inside Ramírez.

Gianfratti speared into the side of the Peugeot, and Tiago Pernía was also caught up in the incident, allowing Yannantuoni into fifth, who had come from the back of the grid in a matter of laps. Gianfratti was out of the race, although Ramírez continued after a pitstop.

At the front, Reis sought to close the gap to Rosso, but despite getting within a few tenths of the leading Lynk & Co and generally lapping within half a second, the CUPRA driver couldn’t find a way past.

On the final lap, Reis went wide exiting Turn 2, bouncing across the grass and into a trackside advert, but was able to continue.

That gave Rosso a more comfortable gap on the final lap, the 32-year-old scoring his second win of the season by just under a second from Reis, with Pezzini completing the podium in third for the second time of the day.

Leonel Pernía was fourth as the top Honda, and in the process extended his lead in the drivers’ standings to 92 points over Cardoso, who only completed four laps in the race due to his turbo woes.

Yannantuoni was fifth, ahead of Mariano Pernía in sixth, whilst series rookie Joaquín Cafaro was seventh in his second-ever TCR race.

The series continues in Uruguay, at El Pinar on 25 – 27 July.

Race two result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	16			Juan Ángel ROSSO	Paladini Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	24	31:59.294	1:18.846	4
2	77			Raphael REIS	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	24	0.965	1:18.394	6
3	113			Fabricio PEZZINI	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	24	1.975	1:18.828	7
4	44			Leonel PERNÍA	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	24	3.580	1:19.057	9
5	5			Fabián YANNANTUONI	Paladini Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	24	9.156	1:19.057	15
6	55			Mariano PERNÍA	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	24	10.475	1:19.341	8
7	8			Joaquín CAFARO	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	24	22.426	1:19.924	11
8	85			Tiago PERNÍA	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	24	22.756	1:19.931	3
9	66			Genaro RASETTO	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	24	27.050	1:19.199	2
10	33			Nelson PIQUET JR	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	24	46.957	1:19.968	10
11	23			María NIENKÖTTER	Cobra Racing	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	24	49.652	1:20.814	14
12	88			Adrián CHIRIANO	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	24	1:06.886	1:21.202	13
13	3			Luis RAMÍREZ	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	21	+ 3 LAPS	1:19.658	1
R	19			Enzo GIANFRATTI	Porthack Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	7	DNF	1:19.915	12
R	1			Pedro CARDOSO	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	4	DNF	1:18.294	5