Juan Ángel Rosso takes second straight pole at El Pinar

Squadra Martino’s Juan Ángel Rosso secured his second consecutive TCR South America pole position in qualifying at El Pinar, further allowing the Argentine to bring himself into title contention.

Rosso was comfortably quicker than W2 Pro GP’s Raphael Reis in Q2 to take pole at the El Pinar circuit just outside Montevideo in Uruguay by over half a second.

Having been on pole at the previous event in the country at Rivera, Argentine Rosso is moving gradually closer to the top of the standings – especially as points leader Fabricio Pezzini was excluded from qualifying for prohibited pitlane work following a serious of gearbox issues.

“We were quick in practice but I needed to adjust a bit,” said Rosso. “I was not happy with my first lap in Q2. It was hotter, we were going slower and the car lost a lot of grip. Finally, a good lap came out. I’m happy and calmer now – we got pole position and we are ready for tomorrow.”

PMO Racing were next up, with their trio of Peugeot cars out-qualifying the Lynk & Co cars in the same team. Juan Manuel Casella was third, ahead of team-mates Franco Farina and Enrique Maglione.

Scuderia Chiarelli’s Pedro Aizza put his Hyundai in sixth, ahead of Rodrigo Aramendia – contesting more than one event this year – in seventh.

W2 Pro GP’s Alceu Feldmann put his CUPRA in eighth, whilst the top ten was completed by the Lynk & Co of Q1 pace-setter José Manuel Sapag and Fabio Casagrande’s Honda.

Pezzini will start from 13^th for both races after a disastrous qualifying session for the PMO Motorsport points leader.

Race one is scheduled to get underway at 09:40 local time (13:40 BST, 14:40 CEST) on Sunday.

Q2 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	26		Juan Ángel ROSSO	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	3	1:09.713	–
2	77		Raphael REIS	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	4	1:10.272	0.559
3	60		Juan Manuel CASELLA	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	7	1:10.683	0.970
4	87		Franco FARINA	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	2	1:10.891	1.178
5	15		Enrique MAGLIONE	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	5	1:10.991	1.278
6	35		Pedro AIZZA	Scuderia Chiarelli	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	5	1:11.105	1.392
7	27		Rodrigo ARAMENDIA	Squadra Martino Uruguay	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR	7	1:11.133	1.420
8	17		Alceu FELDMANN	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	2	1:11.169	1.456
9	33		José Manuel SAPAG	PMO Motorsport	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	1	1:11.448	1.735
10	34		Fabio CASAGRANDE	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	3	1:11.615	1.902
11	10		Adalberto BAPTISTA	Cobra Racing Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	2	1:11.857	2.144
12	81		Fernando RAMA	Squadra Martino Uruguay	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR	2	1:13.219	3.506

Q1 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	33		José Manuel SAPAG	PMO Motorsport	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	6	1:09.820	–
2	77		Raphael REIS	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	6	1:09.933	0.113
3	26		Juan Ángel ROSSO	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	4	1:09.974	0.154
4	60		Juan Manuel CASELLA	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	3	1:10.509	0.689
5	17		Alceu FELDMANN	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	6	1:10.564	0.744
6	87		Franco FARINA	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	5	1:11.029	1.209
7	35		Pedro AIZZA	Scuderia Chiarelli	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	5	1:11.102	1.282
8	81		Fernando RAMA	Squadra Martino Uruguay	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR	6	1:11.223	1.403
9	27		Rodrigo ARAMENDIA	Squadra Martino Uruguay	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR	4	1:11.355	1.535
10	34		Fabio CASAGRANDE	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	5	1:11.436	1.616
11	15		Enrique MAGLIONE	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	7	1:11.550	1.730
12	10		Adalberto BAPTISTA	Cobra Racing Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	7	1:11.826	2.006
13	7		Fabricio PEZZINI	PMO Motorsport	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	4	1:11.544	1.724
14	112		Mariano BERALDI	Crown Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	–	No time	N/A