Raphael Reis and Felipe Fraga claim victory in Interlagos endurance

W2 Pro GP’s Raphael Reis and his co-driver Felipe Fraga claimed victory in the one-hour TCR South America endurance race at Interlagos in Brazil.

Qualifying on Saturday saw the regular drivers and their invitational co-drivers take part in a session each, with the combined times from the two drivers for a car forming their overall qualifying time.

That resulted in Reis and Fraga putting their CUPRA on pole position, with both drivers having topped their respective sessions anyway.

Reigning champion Leonel Pernía and co-driver Julián Santero were second on the grid, just under three tenths of a second back, having been third quickest in their sessions respectively.

At the rolling start of the endurance race, Fraga led away from Pernía, and the Brazilian began to dominate his stint as he pulled more than six seconds clear before the pit window opened on lap 18.

Fraga pitted to temporarily give Pernía the lead, as the driver change in the leading car took place in a minimum pitstop time of 1 minute and 45 seconds.

Pernía, meanwhile, had to withstand heavy pressure from the CUPRA of Jenson Brickley, who was the only other driver to keep with the pace at the front, as the rest of the field fell to over 26 seconds adrift.

One of the only drivers not to pit on the first lap of the window, Pernía then came in to hand over to Santero on the next lap.

Santeor just managed to stay ahead of the CUPRA of Enzo Gianfratti, who took over from Brickley, as he rejoined the race, but he had to withstand heavy pressure from the chasing Brazilian.

As the post pitstop racing resumed, Joaquin Cafaro brought his Peugeot to a halt with a technical issue on lap 20.

With seven minutes to go, Juan Manuel Casella crashed his Uruguay Racing Team Peugeot heavily, prompting a safety car intervention, wiping out Reis’ near-seven second lead.

Casella took several minutes to get out of the car, but was largely uninjured, but the result was that by the time racing resumed there was only just over a minute left on the clock.

Reis / Fraga ultimately went on to clinch victory by a second and a half from Santero / Pernía, with Gianfratti / Brickley completing the podium.

Paladini Racing’s Nicolás Fuca was the top Lynk & Co driver in fourth, sharing the car with Santiago Urrutia.

On the penultimate lap, Pedro Carodso overtook Gabriel Moura’s Audi to take fifth in a car he was sharing with Celso Neto.

Moura would have been sixth, but he and Gaston Iansa were later excluded from the result for a technical infringement.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	77			Raphael REIS		Felipe FRAGA	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	32	1:00:19.786	1:42.766	1
2	1			Leonel PERNÍA		Julián SANTERO	Honda Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	32	1.580	1:43.086	2
3	19			Enzo GIANFRATTI		Jenson BRICKLEY	G Racing Motorsport	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	32	2.542	1:43.040	3
4	3			Nicolás FUCA		Santiago URRUTIA	Paladini Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	32	4.024	1:43.649	5
5	43			Pedro CARDOSO		Celso NETO	G Racing Motorsport	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	32	5.557	1:43.825	7
6	27			Camilo TRAPPA		Alex LEY	Hyundai MSA	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	32	10.734	1:43.484	13
7	85			Tiago PERNÍA		Esteban GUERRIERI	Honda Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	32	12.979	1:44.062	6
8	9			Fabricio PEZZINI		Carlos Javier MERLO	Paladini Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	32	14.693	1:44.849	12
9	55			Mariano PERNÍA		Alex SEID	Cobra Racing Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	32	32.011	1:44.326	15
10	16			Juan Ángel ROSSO		Francisco Viel BUGLIOTTI	Paladini Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	32	37.049	1:44.106	10
11	5			Fabián YANNANTUONI		Beto MONTEIRO	Paladini Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	32	39.602	1:44.216	14
12	7			Erick SCHOTTEN		Bruno MASSA	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	31	+ 1 LAP	1:44.180	8
13	56			Gabriel ROMANO		Alberto CATTUCCI	Porthack Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	31	+ 1 LAP	1:44.196	17
14	88			Adrián CHIRIANO		Fabio CASAGRANDE	Honda Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	31	+ 1 LAP	1:46.076	18
15	60			Juan Manuel CASELLA		Galid OSMAN	Uruguay Racing Team	Peugeot 308 TCR	26	+ 6 LAPS	1:43.972	9
16	29			Néstor GIROLAMI		Gaetano DI MAURO	Hyundai MSA	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	26	+ 6 LAPS	1:43.327	4
17	33			Nelson PIQUET JR		Marcos REGADAS	Honda Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	24	+ 8 LAPS	1:43.469	20
R	115			Diego CIANTINI		Rodrigo LUGÓN	Hyundai MSA	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	23	DNF	1:44.098	19
R	8			Joaquín CAFARO		Mauricio LAMBIRIS	Uruguay Racing Team	Peugeot 308 TCR	19	DNF	1:45.080	16
R	15			Enrique MAGLIONE		Facundo FERRA	Uruguay Racing Team	Peugeot 308 TCR	6	DNF	1:45.783	21
EX	86			Gabriel MOURA		Gaston IANSA	Cobra Racing Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	32	6.958	1:43.815	11