Nelson Piquet Jr scores first win in TCR South America

Honda YPF Racing’s Nelson Piquet Jr took his first victory in TCR South America in the second race at Velo Città in Brazil, with a lights-to-flag drive ahead of Paladini Racing’s Fabián Yannantuoni.

Piquet Jr started the reverse-grid race from pole position and made a good start to pull into a clear lead, with Yannantuoni vaulting from sixth on the grid to second at the start, as front-row starter Enzo Gianfratti stalled his CUPRA on the grid.

Further around the opening lap PMO Racing’s Marcos Regadas and Paladini Racing’s Juan Ángel Rosso made contact, pitching the latter’s Lynk & Co into the barriers hard.

The stricken car meant the safety car had to be called for one lap, whilst Regadas was shown the black flag and disqualified a few laps later for the incident.

At the front, Piquet Jr eased clear of Yannantuoni, who was something of a cork-in-the-bottle to the cars behind.

However, Yannantuoni held second whilst it was third-placed Pedro Cardoso who began to come under pressure from points leader Leonel Pernía.

Pernía ultimately made a move on Cardoso into the final corner on lap 14 to relieve him of third, and thus completed the podium.

Cardoso finished in fourth, whilst W2 Pro GP’s Raphael Reis was fifth. His team-mate and brother Leonardo Reis took sixth, having passed Mariano Pernía for the position on lap 13.

Mariano Pernía was clearly struggling late in the race, and ultimately lost out to the recovering Gianfratti, who took seventh and Genaro Rasetto, who took eighth, leaving Pernía to take ninth, whilst Maria Nienkötter completed the top ten.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	33			Nelson PIQUET JR	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	20	32:54.266	1:34.114	1
2	5			Fabián YANNANTUONI	Paladini Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	20	7.790	1:34.603	6
3	44			Leonel PERNÍA	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	20	9.689	1:34.971	9
4	1			Pedro CARDOSO	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	20	15.590	1:34.615	8
5	77			Raphael REIS	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	20	16.056	1:35.015	7
6	293			Leonardo REIS	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	20	20.959	1:35.526	10
7	19			Enzo GIANFRATTI	G Racing Motorsport	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	20	21.689	1:34.850	2
8	66			Genaro RASETTO	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	20	23.874	1:35.535	5
9	55			Mariano PERNÍA	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	20	31.386	1:35.396	11
10	23			María NIENKÖTTER	Cobra Racing	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	20	1:02.739	1:37.331	12
11	88			Adrián CHIRIANO	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	20	1:04.589	1:38.109	13
12	84			Fernando CROCE	Porthack Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	20	1:04.932	1:38.443	14
DQ	27			Marcos REGADAS	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	7		1:35.617	3
R	16			Juan Ángel ROSSO	Paladini Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	0		N/A	4