Leonel Pernía stretches his points lead in TCR South America

Leonel Pernía and Fabrício Pezzini were the race winners at the event of TCR South America in San Juan Villicum, with Pernía claiming his third victory of the season and continuing to build his lead as he battles for the championship.

The consistent Argentine driver finished fifth in the second race and is now leading the standings on 219 points, 43 clear of last year’s champion Pedro Cardoso, with Raphael Reis in third position with a gap of 75 points.

The next event of the series is the last of the Argentine leg in the calendar and will be held at Termas de Río Hondo on May 31/June 1st.

Race 1 – Perníá had secured a second consecutive pole position ahead of teammate Nelson Piquet jr, while Reis was the closest rival to the two Honda drivers, qualifying third. Pernía launched off the line well, while two of his teammates did not: Piquet bogged down from second on the grid and Leonel’s son Tiago broke down off the line. Tiago’s Honda stopped on track, causing an immediate safety car deployment.

The race resumed with Leonel Pernía leading ahead of Reis, with Cardoso up to third from sixth on the grid, however the Brazilian was struggling for pace and was overtaken for third by Fabián Yannantuoni just before Enzo Gianfratti’s Honda span out causing a second intervention of the safety car.

At the restart, Cardoso was fighting to keep fourth ahead of Piquet; the Brazilian pair made side-to-side contact that resulted in a front-right puncture on Piquet’s car that retired. Cardoso then came back at Yannantuoni, briefly reclaiming third, but was passed back by the Argentine driver on the penultimate lap and had to settle for fourth, while Pernía claimed victory ahead of Reis.

Race 2 – Former champion Pezzini started from the pole but lost out into T1 by the fast-starting Juan Ángel Rosso. Rosso was soon repassed by Pezzini, who would then go on to dominate the race in his CUPRA.

After half race distance, Mariano Pernía lost third to Yannantuoni and when he dropped to fifth behind Reis, allowed his teammates Leonel Pernía and Piquet to go ahead of him. Rosso and Yannantuoni briefly swapped positions in the hope that Yannantuoni had enough pace to attack Pezzini, but when it was clear he couldn’t catch the leader, Yannantuoni handed the position back to his teammate with two laps to go.

Pezzini scored his second win of the year by 2.2 seconds ahead of Rosso, with Yannantoni completing the podium.

Race 1

1. Leonel Pernía (Honda YPF Racing, Honda Civic Type R FL5), 14 laps
2. Raphael Reis (W2 Pro GP, CUPRA Leon VZ), 1.074
3. Fabián Yannantuoni (Paladini Racing, Lynk & Co 03), 6.120

Race 2

1. Fabrício Pezzini (W2 Pro GP, CUPRA Leon VZ), 18 laps
2. Juan Ángel Rosso (Paladini Racing, Lynk & Co 03), 2.248
3. Fabián Yannantuoni (Paladini Racing, Lynk & Co 03), 3.274

Championship points

1. L. Pernía, 219 pts; 2. P. Cardoso, 176; 3. R. Reis, 144

Picture: TCR South America/Hernán Capa