Leonel Pernía and Raphael Reis share wins at El Pinar

Honda YPF Racing’s Leonel Pernía and W2 Pro GP’s Raphael Reis shared the victories in the TCR South America races at El Pinar in Uruguay, although Pernía’s championship lead was reduced slightly by a race two incident.

Race One

After qualifying on pole position for the third time of the season on Saturday, Nelson Piquet Jr would start the opening race from the front, with Pernía alongside.

However, Piquet was once again not the quickest away from the line, allowing Pernía to seize the lead at the start, with the Brazilian settling into second.

Piquet tried hard to pass Pernía for the lead in the opening laps, but it was to no avail, as the Argentine put up a staunch defence.

Behind them, third-placed Pedro Cardoso began to fall away from the leading Honda duo, and initially came under heavy pressure from Paladini Racing’s Fabián Yannantuoni.

However, on lap six, Juan Manuel Casella overtook Yannantuoni’s Lynk & Co, and the CUPRA driver quickly took over applying pressure to Cardoso’s Peugeot.

The two made contact under braking for the hairpin on lap eight, and Yannantuoni sought to capitalise, being forced onto the grass on the exit and narrowly avoiding a huge shunt.

All three continued, with Cardoso holding third from Casella and Yannantuoni, until the race was neutralised on lap eight after Enzo Gianfratti crashed his Honda.

Racing resumed on lap 14, but only for one lap after contact between María Nienkötter and rookie Tomás Fernández resulted in the latter crashing his Toyota backwards heavily into the barriers.

Thus the race ended behind the safety car, with Leonel Pernía scoring his fifth win of the season from Piquet and Cardoso.

Casella was fourth on his return to the series, ahead of Yannantuoni, whilst Reis took sixth.

Tiago Pernía retired from the race after six laps due to a hydraulic problem.

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	17	27:44.982	1:21.075	2
2	33			Nelson PIQUET JR	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	17	0.800	1:20.091	1
3	1			Pedro CARDOSO	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	17	2.196	1:21.153	3
4	60			Juan Manuel CASELLA	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	17	3.242	1:20.905	6
5	5			Fabián YANNANTUONI	Paladini Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	17	3.528	1:20.881	4
6	77			Raphael REIS	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	17	4.080	1:20.710	9
7	8			Joaquín CAFARO	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	17	4.744	1:21.282	11
8	16			Juan Ángel ROSSO	Paladini Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	17	5.466	1:21.114	7
9	55			Mariano PERNÍA	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	17	6.993	1:21.273	16
10	21			Benjamin HITES	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	17	7.733	1:22.103	8
11	88			Adrián CHIRIANO	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	17	8.859	1:22.535	12
12	36			Carlos SILVA	Paladini Racing	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	17	9.432	1:22.671	10
13	23			María NIENKÖTTER	Cobra Racing	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	17	10.239	1:23.179	13
R	11			Tomás FERNÁNDEZ	Paladini Racing	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	13	DNF	1:23.255	14
R	19			Enzo GIANFRATTI	Porthack Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	7	DNF	1:22.798	15
R	85			Tiago PERNÍA	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	6	DNF	1:21.423	5

Race Two

Local racer Carlos Silva had the reverse-grid pole position, with Reis alongside in his CUPRA. At the start, Reis made a better launch from the lights and pulled into the lead, with Silva initially settling into second, before yielding to team-mate Juan Ángel Rosso a few corners later.

Casella tried to take third into the tight Turn 9, but made a mistake under braking and almost hit Silva and the Peugeot of Benjamin Hites, who was challenging for third.

Instead, Casella clattered into Tiago Pernía, who was trying to pass around the outside, dropping both drivers effectively to the back of the pack along with Piquet, who had also gone off earlier in the lap. Casella also picked up a three-place grid penalty for the next event in the process.

Cardoso overtook Silva for third on the second lap, but by this stage Reis was easing into a comfortable lead at the front from Rosso.

Hites ran in the top five early on but began to fall back after a few laps, and by the end of lap three he had dropped to tenth, behind the recovering Piquet, who was already back up to ninth.

On lap five, Casella had to pit with an issue, whilst Joaquín Cafaro stopped his Peugeot on track with a water temperature issue, prompting a three lap safety car intervention.

Racing resumed on lap nine, with Reis again easing clear of Rosso and Cardoso. Leonel Pernía was running in fourth and close to Cardoso, whilst Piquet overtook Yannantuoni two laps later for fifth.

Leonel Pernía then fell back two places on lap 12 after trying and failing to pass Cardoso at the final corner hairpin, allowing Piquet up to fourth and Yannantuoni into fifth.

However, Piquet picked up a puncture on lap 15 and had to pit, whilst Leonel Pernía got back past Yannantuoni and resumed his challenge on title rival Cardoso.

Three laps from the finish, Leonel Pernía tried to pass Cardoso for third but there was contact, resulting in his effective retirement from the race – as well as a three-place grid penalty for the next event.

In the melee, Tiago Pernía also made contact twice with Cardoso and took fourth.

By this time, Reis was in a clear lead and won the race by over eight seconds from Rosso, with rookie Hites completing the podium after being the biggest beneficiary of the late-race dramas that befell the drivers in front.

Although Tiago Pernía crossed the finish line in fourth, he was penalised by five seconds for the contact with Cardoso, allowing the reigning champion to claim fourth, with Tiago Pernía in fifth.

Adrián Chiriano was sixth in his Honda, ahead of Gianfratti in seventh and Silva in eighth.

The weekends results mean that Leonel Pernía’s championship lead has actually been slightly reduced by seven points, although he still holds a commanding lead with 406 points, ahead of Cardoso (321) and Piquet (295).

The next event is at Curvelo in Brazil on 16 – 17 August.

Race two result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	77			Raphael REIS	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	22	31:49.651	1:20.722	2
2	16			Juan Ángel ROSSO	Paladini Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	22	8.158	1:21.486	4
3	21			Benjamin HITES	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	22	9.702	1:21.470	3
4	1			Pedro CARDOSO	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	22	12.490	1:21.206	8
5	85			Tiago PERNÍA	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	22	15.117	1:21.214	6
6	88			Adrián CHIRIANO	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	22	21.587	1:22.717	13
7	19			Enzo GIANFRATTI	Porthack Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	22	22.881	1:22.265	14
8	36			Carlos SILVA	Paladini Racing	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	22	27.177	1:22.782	1
9	5			Fabián YANNANTUONI	Paladini Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	22	33.885	1:20.597	7
10	23			María NIENKÖTTER	Cobra Racing	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	22	34.045	1:23.007	15
11	33			Nelson PIQUET JR	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	22	47.283	1:20.475	10
12	44			Leonel PERNÍA	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	20	+ 2 LAPS	1:21.265	9
13	55			Mariano PERNÍA	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	17	DNF	1:21.816	12
R	60			Juan Manuel CASELLA	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	8	DNF	1:22.175	5
R	8			Joaquín CAFARO	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	5	DNF	1:21.503	11