Pernía and Rosso share wins in TCR South America at Oberá
The second event of TCR South America at Oberá saw Leonel Pernía and Juan Ángel Rosso score one victory apiece.
After setting pole position, Pernía drove his Honda Civic to a lights-to-flag victory in Race 1, the second for him so far after that in the season opening at Rosario. In the second race, Rosso took his first win of the season and the first at the wheel of a Lynk & Co, overtaking the Toyota Corolla of his Paladini Racing teammate Santino Balerini in the final lap.
Pernía recovered to finish third and keeps on leading the standings with a gap of 14 points over the reigning champion Pedro Cardoso and his PMO Racing Peugeot 308, with the Brazilian driver classified second in both races, while Rosso moved up to third, 55 points behind the leader.
Race 1 – Honda YPF Racing drivers had dominated Qualifying, with Leonel Pernía snatching the pole ahead of Nelson Piquet jr. and his own son Tiago; Cardoso was best of the rest in P4. The poleman led at the start from Piquet, Cardoso, Raphael Reis and Tiago Pernía who had taken a slow getaway.
Leonel Pernía built a 1.5-second gap, but halfway through the race he fell under pressure from Piquet and Cardoso, with the three of them covered by less than a second. In lap 17, Cardoso overtook Piquet for second and during the last five laps tried to find a gap to pass Pernía who kept him at bay and won by three tenths, with Piquet in third position and Tiago Pernía overtaking Reis for P4 in the final lap.
Race 2 – Balerini’s Toyota and Fabrício Pezzini’s CUPRA shared the front row of the top ten reversed grid. For the first half of the race, Balerini set the pace and was closely chased by a train of car with Rosso and Luis Ramírez in second and third. The pack narrowly escaped catastrophe in lap 9, when Maria Nienkötter rejoined after a spin just in front of the leader. In the second part of the race there was plenty of collisions and overtaking manoeuvres. Eventually, after a safety car period to recover Fabián Yannantuoni’s Lynk & Co, Rosso and Cardoso overtook Balerini at the beginning of the last lap to finish first and second. Behind them there was a multi-car clash that saw Leonel Pernía emerging in P3 ahead of Balerini who was then demoted to ninth by a five second penalty for an infringement at the restart.
The next event will be at San Juan Villicum on May 9/11.
Race 1
- Leonel Pernía (Honda YPF Racing, Honda Civic Type R FL5), 22 laps
- Pedro Cardoso (PMO Racing, Peugeot 308), 0.331
- Nelson Piquet jr (Honda YPF Racing, Honda Civic Type R FL5), 1.033
Race 2
- Juan Ángel Rosso (Paladini Racing, Lynk & Co 03), 23 laps
- Pedro Cardoso (PMO Racing, Peugeot 308), 1.439
- Leonel Pernía (Honda YPF Racing, Honda Civic Type R FL5), 6.026
Championship points
- L. Pernía, 148 pts; 2. P. Cardoso, 134; 3. J.Á. Rosso, 93
Picture: TCR South America/Hernán Capa
