Cardoso and Pernía share wins in puncture-riddled Cascavel races

Pedro Cardoso and Leonel Pernía picked up the wins in heavily puncture-affected TCR South America races at Cascavel in Brazil, with both races taking place on Sunday after a huge Saturday crash.

Saturday’s first attempt at race one resulted in the race being postponed to Sunday, after pole-sitter Nelson Piquet Jr stalled on the grid and was heavily collected by Bruno Massa.

The opening race of the day on Sunday started behind the safety car, with Tiago Pernía effectively assuming pole position after Piquet Jr couldn’t start the race following the Saturday pile-up.

Tiago Pernía initially led his father Leonel Pernía for the opening eight laps, before the youngster had to pit with a sudden puncture at the end of lap nine, handing the lead to his father.

However, Leonel Pernía would only manage a further two laps in the lead before he too picked up a puncture, which put W2 Pro GP’s Raphael Reis in the lead.

Clearly, tyre wear was becoming a huge issue at the circuit and, five laps later, after withstanding huge pressure from fellow CUPRA racer Pedro Cardoso, Reis too suffered a front-right blow out and had to limp back to the pits.

Cardoso thus found himself leading and unlike his rivals was able to nurse his G Racing Motorsport Leon home to score the fifth win in his TCR South America career.

Joaquín Cafaro brought his Peugeot home in second after a strong driver, whilst Cardoso’s team-mate Enzo Gianfratti completed the podium, having passed both Erick Schotten and Néstor Girolami in the closing laps of the race.

Girolami was the leading Hyundai driver in fourth, whilst Schotten brought his CUPRA home in fifth.

Hyundai’s Diego Ciantini had been engrossed in a battle with Gustavo Moura and Gianfratti for places in the latter half of the top ten early in the race, but that ultimately became sixth when the leading trio fell by the wayside.

Moura brought his Audi home in seventh, ahead of Hyundai’s Camilo Trappa in eighth, whilst the top ten was completed by the Lynk & Co of Paladini Racing’s Fabián Yannantuoni and Uriuguay Racing Team’s Juan Manuel Casella.

Leonel and Tiago Pernía ultimately finished down in 14^th and 15^th respectively, with Reis in 16^th.

Piquet, Bruno Massa and Guilherme Reischl all failed to start after their cars were written off on Saturday.

Race one result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	43			Pedro CARDOSO	G Racing Motorsport	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	21	24:24.441	1:05.241	5
2	8			Joaquín CAFARO	Uruguay Racing Team	Peugeot 308 TCR	21	6.660	1:05.495	6
3	19			Enzo GIANFRATTI	G Racing Motorsport	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	21	7.391	1:05.167	10
4	29			Néstor GIROLAMI	Hyundai MSA	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	21	8.881	1:05.437	7
5	7			Erick SCHOTTEN	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	21	9.289	1:05.494	8
6	115			Diego CIANTINI	Hyundai MSA	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	21	11.660	1:05.667	11
7	86			Gabriel MOURA	Cobra Racing Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	21	12.122	1:05.711	12
8	27			Camilo TRAPPA	Hyundai MSA	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	21	12.781	1:05.502	9
9	5			Fabián YANNANTUONI	Paladini Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	21	13.376	1:05.559	16
10	60			Juan Manuel CASELLA	Uruguay Racing Team	Peugeot 308 TCR	21	14.133	1:05.778	13
11	9			Fabricio PEZZINI	Paladini Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	21	16.197	1:05.715	17
12	16			Juan Ángel ROSSO	Paladini Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	21	28.361	1:06.702	14
13	15			Enrique MAGLIONE	Uruguay Racing Team	Peugeot 308 TCR	21	42.115	1:06.452	21
14	1			Leonel PERNÍA	Honda Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	21	53.260	1:05.143	3
15	85			Tiago PERNÍA	Honda Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	20	+ 1 LAP	1:05.202	2
16	77			Raphael REIS	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	20	+ 1 LAP	1:05.276	4
17	56			Gabriel ROMANO	Porthack Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	19	+ 2 LAPS	1:06.901	22
18	3			Nicolás FUCA	Paladini Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	16	+ 5 LAPS	1:06.022	19
19	88			Adrián CHIRIANO	Honda Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	16	+ 5 LAPS	1:06.971	18
NS	33			Nelson PIQUET JR	Honda Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	–	DNS	N/A	1
NS	20			Bruno MASSA	G Racing Motorsport	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	–	DNS	N/A	15
NS	37			Guilherme REISCHL	Cobra Racing Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	–	DNS	N/A	20

Race two

Race two saw Gianfratti starting from pole with Trappa alongside. When the lights went out, the front row men got away well whilst Schotten was slow away from third, allowing Girolami to move ahead of him.

An eventful opening lap in the mid-pack saw Cardoso fight his way into third by the last corner, whilst Leonel Pernía assumed fourth.

Girolami and Reis then made contact along the start-finish straight going onto lap two, with Reis and Tiago Pernía Passing Girolami for sixth and seventh in the process.

Cardoso passed Trappa for second further around the lap, with Leonel Pernía following into third in the process.

It all changed on lap eight, when Cardoso firstly suffered from a front-right puncture on his CUPRA, having to limp back to the pits.

A few corners later, the same fate befell Gianfratti, who dived into the pits for new rubber.

Leonel Pernía thus found himself in the lead, having just hours earlier been in the reverse position himself.

The reigning champion thereafter was able to manage his race and took victory by a second and a half from Cafaro, who once again finished on the podium in his Peugeot, passing Trappa for the place on lap 20.

Trappa completed the podium in third but had to withstand heavy pressure from Tiago Pernía and Reis for the place. Trappa and Tiago Pernía made contact on lap 20 just a corner after Cafaro had moved into second, as Tiago Pernía made an opportunistic move on Trappa which resulted in his front splitter breaking and forcing him out of the race.

Reis was fourth, ahead of Ciantini in fifth. Yannantuoni was sixth in his Lynk & Co, in a difficult weekend for the four-car Paladini Racing team.

In the drivers’ standings, Girolami has assumed the lead with 96 points despite missing out on the podium all weekend, ahead of Trappa (95), Leonel Pernía (94), Cafaro (84) and Reis (78) etc.

Race two result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	1			Leonel PERNÍA	Honda Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	26	31:11.058	1:06.081	8
2	8			Joaquín CAFARO	Uruguay Racing Team	Peugeot 308 TCR	26	1.518	1:06.787	5
3	27			Camilo TRAPPA	Hyundai MSA	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	26	5.544	1:06.739	2
4	77			Raphael REIS	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	26	5.966	1:06.706	7
5	115			Diego CIANTINI	Hyundai MSA	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	26	6.858	1:06.947	11
6	5			Fabián YANNANTUONI	Paladini Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	26	7.254	1:06.793	16
7	60			Juan Manuel CASELLA	Uruguay Racing Team	Peugeot 308 TCR	26	9.408	1:06.806	13
8	29			Néstor GIROLAMI	Hyundai MSA	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	26	9.852	1:07.042	4
9	88			Adrián CHIRIANO	Honda Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	26	12.239	1:07.304	18
10	9			Fabricio PEZZINI	Paladini Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	26	12.546	1:07.041	17
11	86			Gabriel MOURA	Cobra Racing Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	26	13.154	1:06.921	12
12	15			Enrique MAGLIONE	Uruguay Racing Team	Peugeot 308 TCR	26	18.881	1:07.204	21
13	7			Erick SCHOTTEN	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	26	51.915	1:06.815	3
14	43			Pedro CARDOSO	G Racing Motorsport	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	25	+ 1 LAP	1:05.685	6
15	19			Enzo GIANFRATTI	G Racing Motorsport	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	25	+ 1 LAP	1:06.029	1
16	16			Juan Ángel ROSSO	Paladini Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	25	+ 1 LAP	1:07.280	14
17	3			Nicolás FUCA	Paladini Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	25	+ 1 LAP	1:07.027	19
18	56			Gabriel ROMANO	Porthack Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	24	+ 2 LAPS	1:07.581	22
19	85			Tiago PERNÍA	Honda Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	20	+ 6 LAPS	1:06.749	9
NS	33			Nelson PIQUET JR	Honda Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	–	DNS	N/A	10
NS	20			Bruno MASSA	G Racing Motorsport	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	–	DNS	N/A	15
NS	37			Guilherme REISCHL	Cobra Racing Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	–	DNS	N/A	20