Matías Rossi doubles up as Villicum delivers drama

Toyota’s Matías Rossi scored a double victory in the TCR South America races at Villicum in San Juan, as title contenders Pedro Cardoso and Raphael Reis clashed in a thrilling second race.

Pole-sitter Rossi made a good start when the lights went out in the opening encounter, whilst Galid Osman appeared to make a good start to claim third at the first corner, before quickly dropping back to sixth a few turns later.

It was series returnee Matías Cravero who appeared feistiest at the start, seizing third into the opening corner, then passing team-mate Juan Manuel Casella for second into the Turn 6 hairpin, before quickly going on to pressure Rossi for the lead from the second lap.

However, Toyota’s Rossi held firm until a safety car intervention came on lap seven, after Fabián Yannantuoni, who had hit a tyre stack on the fifth lap, spun off on his own on lap six and beached his Corolla in the gravel.

Racing resumed after just one lap behind the safety car, and Casella immediately took the opportunity to pounce on Cravero for second into the first corner.

Seemingly caught out, Cravero lost the place and then fell behind the Peugeot of Leonel Pernía, although the latter demotion was only brief as he fought back past into third a few corners later.

But at the front, Rossi held firm to claim his maiden win in TCR South America, ahead of Casella in second, who kept his title hopes alive with a second straight podium.

Cravero completed the podium, his first rostrum visit in the series in his ninth start, ahead of Pernía in fourth.

Rafael Suzuki followed his PMO Racing team-mate home in fifth after a quiet race, with Reis claiming sixth in his W2 Pro GP CUPRA, having passed Juan Ángel Rosso for seventh with four laps to go, and then been allowed into sixth by team-mate Osman on the final lap.

Osman had passed Rosso for sixth a lap earlier, but took the chequered flag in seventh after allowing his team-mate by in the final corners, with Rosso bringing his Paladini Racing Toyota home in eighth.

Championship leader Cardoso took ninth after an unusually quiet race for the Brazilian, with Squadra Martino’s Enrique Maglione completing the top ten.

Race one result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	17			Matías ROSSI	Toyota Team Argentina	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	15	27:54.082	1:45.045	1
2	60			Juan Manuel CASELLA	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	15	0.465	1:45.067	2
3	38			Matías CRAVERO	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	15	3.644	1:45.003	3
4	44			Leonel PERNÍA	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	15	4.311	1:45.362	4
5	8			Rafael SUZUKI	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	15	9.001	1:45.973	6
6	77			Raphael REIS	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	15	10.557	1:45.662	8
7	28			Galid OSMAN	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	15	11.167	1:45.769	5
8	16			Juan Ángel ROSSO	Paladini Racing	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	15	12.870	1:45.872	7
9	43			Pedro CARDOSO	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	15	13.149	1:46.183	10
10	7			Thiago VIVACQUA	Cobra Racing Team	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	15	19.466	1:46.596	13
11	15			Enrique MAGLIONE	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	15	28.436	1:46.603	16
12	33			Luis RAMÍREZ	Squadra Martino Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	15	30.008	1:46.189	9
13	19			Matías CHAS	Paladini Racing	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	15	33.675	1:47.588	15
14	34			Fabio CASAGRANDE	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	15	35.071	1:46.585	12
15	2			Marcio BASSO	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	15	35.267	1:47.114	14
R	5			Fabián YANNANTUONI	Paladini Racing	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	5	DNF	1:46.205	11

Race two

Championship leader Cardoso had the reverse-grid pole for the second race, but the Brazilian’s lead would be limited to only the opening lap, as team-mate Suzuki overhauled him along the back straight as Cardoso found himself struggling with flapping bodywork under his Peugeot.

Cardoso then immediately dropped behind Pernía’s Peugeot as well, clearly the slowest of the trio of leading PMO Peugeots.

Having impressed in race one, Cravero’s race was limited in race two, the Argentine being tapped into a spin by Rossi on the second lap which ultimately damaged his Honda and took him out of the race.

Despite that, race one winner Rossi found himself up to sixth by the end of the second lap and making rapid progress in his Toyota.

He passed Rosso for fifth on lap three, with the latter then muscled out on the following tour by Luis Ramírez, dropping four places in a single lap.

At the front, Suzuki and Pernía pulled clear of Cardoso by more than three seconds, leaving Cardoso vulnerable to the attack of the chasing CUPRA of Reis.

As Reis sought to fight past Cardoso, it allowed both Rossi and Casella through into third and fourth respectively on lap five, as the battling duo held each other up and dropped to fifth and sixth. The same lap saw Pernía drop out of contention, suddenly slowing with a technical issue on his car.

A lap later, things came to a head between leading title protagonists Cardoso and Reis, as they made contact on the back straight, pitching Cardoso into the path of the innocent Thiago Vivacqua and taking both out of the race.

Reis was handed a ten-second penalty for the incident, but was able to continue in sixth.

A lap later, the safety car was called upon to allow Cardoso’s and Vivacqua’s cars to be cleared, with racing resuming on lap ten.

As racing resumed, Suzuki was leading Rossi and Casella, who had benefitted from Pernía’s demise. Initially, Suzuki looked to have the pace to hold off an attack, but after a few laps his pace slowed dramatically and on lap 14 Rossi was able to make a relatively easy pass into Turn 6, with Casella following into second only a few corners later.

With Casella unable to challenge Rossi for the lead, the duo repeated their race one formation as Rossi doubled up and Casella scored a third podium in succession.

Osman completed the podium, the CUPRA driver having also got by Suzuki the lap after he lost the lead.

Suzuki held on to claim fourth, ahead of Rosso in fifth as the leading Paladini Toyota once again.

W2’s Marcio Basso was an impressive sixth, despite having made a clear jump start and been hit with a drive-through penalty early in the race as a consequence.

Reis was seventh after his penalty was applied, ahead of Panamanian racer Ramírez in eighth.

Although classified, Squadra Martino’s Fabio Casagrande failed to take the finish due to going off at high speed with three laps to go, hitting the tyre barriers hard.

Cardoso continues to lead the driver’s standings with 330 points, ahead of Reis (322), Casella (290), Rosso (285) and Rossi (256), with events still to be held in Buenos Aires next month, Termas de Río Hondo in November and Rosario in December.

Race two result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	17			Matías ROSSI	Toyota Team Argentina	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	17	33:10.431	1:45.700	10
2	60			Juan Manuel CASELLA	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	17	0.576	1:45.933	9
3	28			Galid OSMAN	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	17	4.239	1:46.496	6
4	8			Rafael SUZUKI	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	17	5.016	1:45.656	5
5	16			Juan Ángel ROSSO	Paladini Racing	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	17	10.215	1:46.810	4
6	2			Marcio BASSO	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	17	19.648	1:47.545	14
7	77			Raphael REIS	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	17	20.412	1:46.927	3
8	33			Luis RAMÍREZ	Squadra Martino Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	17	20.863	1:46.922	2
9	15			Enrique MAGLIONE	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	17	21.041	1:47.608	16
10	19			Matías CHAS	Paladini Racing	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	17	23.537	1:47.901	15
11	44			Leonel PERNÍA	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	17	1:52.840	1:45.928	7
12	34			Fabio CASAGRANDE	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	14	+ 3 LAPS	1:47.526	12
13	5			Fabián YANNANTUONI	Paladini Racing	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	13	+ 4 LAPS	1:46.662	11
R	43			Pedro CARDOSO	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	5	DNF	1:47.947	1
R	7			Thiago VIVACQUA	Cobra Racing Team	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	5	DNF	1:46.977	13
R	38			Matías CRAVERO	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	1	DNF	N/A	8