Leonel Pernía is the early leader after Rosario curtain-raiser

Honda YPF Racing’s Leonel Pernía is the early championship leader in TCR South America after a win and a podium, whilst 2022 champion Fabricio Pezzini comfortably won the second race.

After qualifying in pole position, Tiago Pernía made a poor getaway from the lights at the start, allowing father Leonel, Pedro Cardoso and Nelson Piquet Jr all past, with the latter trio then going side-by-side into the first corner.

Leonel Pernía emerged as the leader, as reigning champion Cardoso muscled past Piquet to settle into an early second place.

Juan Ángel Rosso, meanwhile, had stalled his Paladini Racing Lynk & Co on the grid, dropping from seventh to the back of the field, whilst Genaro Rasetto didn’t even make the start after pulling into the pits on the warmup lap.

There was little change for the first few laps after, as Leonel Pernía tried to consolidate his lead over Cardoso, whilst fourth-placed Tiago Pernía was left catching up to Piquet.

The safety car was then called for on lap five after Fabián Yannantuoni went off at Turn 2 and left his Lynk & Co stranded in the mud on the outside of the circuit.

Racing resumed on lap six, and the biggest mover in the first few laps after the restart was Rosso, who picked off Adrián Chiriano and Mariano Pernía on successive laps to move up to ninth at the mid-distance.

On lap 11, Piquet muscled past Cardoso for second, having spent several laps nose-to-tail, with Tiago Pernía also trying to get in on the action, but unable to find a way through.

Ultimately, there would be no further changes in the order at the front after that, as Honda’s Leonel Pernía went on to win by six tenths of a second from team-mate Piquet, with Cardoso completing the podium in his Peugeot.

Tiago Pernía had to settle for fourth, whilst behind them there were some last-minute changes in the order.

Paladini Racing’s Santino Balerini had been running in a comfortable fifth place, but he lost his Toyota at Turn 2 on the final lap, spinning off into the barriers at high speed.

W2 Pro GP’s Pezzini had been pressuring team-mate Raphael Reis for what was sixth with two laps to go, but retired on the penultimate lap with a missing front-right wheel on his CUPRA.

Rosso, meanwhile, had passed Panamanian racer Luis Ramírez for eighth, and with the dramas ahead of him in the closing laps, he was ultimately able to recover to fifth at the finish.

Reis took sixth ahead of Ramírez, with the top ten completed by Mariano Pernía, Chiriano and María Nienkötter.

Race one result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	44			Leonel PERNÍA	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	16	28:09.223	1:38.830	4
2	33			Nelson PIQUET JR	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	16	0.674	1:38.792	2
3	1			Pedro CARDOSO	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	16	2.752	1:38.809	3
4	85			Tiago PERNÍA	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	16	5.735	1:38.767	1
5	16			Juan Ángel ROSSO	Paladini Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	16	13.025	1:39.271	7
6	77			Raphael REIS	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	16	14.675	1:39.440	5
7	3			Luis RAMÍREZ	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	16	21.857	1:39.848	10
8	55			Mariano PERNÍA	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	16	22.361	1:40.030	9
9	88			Adrián CHIRIANO	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	16	45.526	1:41.445	13
10	23			María NIENKÖTTER	Cobra Racing	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	16	48.751	1:42.983	14
11	95			Santino BALERINI	Paladini Racing	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	15	+ 1 LAP	1:39.195	11
12	113			Fabricio PEZZINI	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	14	+ 2 LAPS	1:39.629	8
R	5			Fabián YANNANTUONI	Paladini Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	3	DNF	N/A	6
R	66			Genaro RASETTO	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	0	DNF	N/A	12

The reverse-grid second race saw Ramírez start from pole position, with Mariano Pernía alongside and Pezzini in third.

At the start, whilst Ramírez made a good launch, Pezzini was able to go around the outside at the fast first corner and seized the lead.

Ramírez then put up a staunch defence of second for the first lap, enabling Pezzini to open a gap at the front and holding up Mariano Pernía, Reis and the chasing pack.

Mariano Pernía muscled past Ramírez at Turn 2 on the second lap, and the latter was then shovelled off the circuit by Rosso a corner later, dropping him to tenth.

Reis pulled off a strong move on Mariano Pernía for second on the fourth lap, the CUPRA braking later than the Honda, and having then lost out to Rosso, Mariano Pernía fell off the circuit on the seventh lap, retiring in the pits after he had collected grass in the front of his Honda.

Reis held second for much of the race, but two laps from the finish he stopped his CUPRA on track ending hopes of a W2 Pro GP 1-2, which handed second to Rosso.

However, Rosso wouldn’t keep that place as after the race he was handed a 20-second penalty for the earlier contact with Ramírez, dropping him to fifth.

That left Cardoso to inherit second, the PMO Racing driver having had a quiet race running in fifth for much of the distance.

Piquet would perhaps have been third, but he had to pit for a replacement front-left tyre on lap 15, handing the final podium position to Leonel Pernía.

Ramírez recovered from his earlier contact with Rosso to take fourth, with Rosso fifth after his penalty.

Balerini was sixth in his repaired Toyota, ahead of Rasetto in seventh, and Piquet in eighth after his stop as the last driver to finish on the lead lap.

Tiago Pernía retired from the race on lap 15.

The weekend’s results leave Leonel Pernía as the early championship leader with 71 points, ahead of Cardoso (65), Piquet (55), Rosso (46) and Pezzini (42).

Race two result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	113			Fabricio PEZZINI	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	19	32:03.030	1:39.900	3
2	1			Pedro CARDOSO	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	19	9.716	1:39.797	8
3	44			Leonel PERNÍA	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	19	19.009	1:39.627	7
4	3			Luis RAMÍREZ	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	19	21.295	1:40.327	1
5	16			Juan Ángel ROSSO	Paladini Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	19	22.220	1:40.074	4
6	95			Santino BALERINI	Paladini Racing	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	19	35.128	1:40.935	11
7	66			Genaro RASETTO	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	19	45.737	1:42.061	12
8	33			Nelson PIQUET JR	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	19	1:14.587	1:39.503	9
9	23			María NIENKÖTTER	Cobra Racing	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	17	+ 2 LAPS	1:43.054	14
10	77			Raphael REIS	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	16	+ 3 LAPS	1:40.148	6
R	85			Tiago PERNÍA	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	7	DNF		10
R	55			Mariano PERNÍA	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	5	DNF		2
R	5			Fabián YANNANTUONI	Paladini Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	2	DNF		5
R	88			Adrián CHIRIANO	Honda YPF Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	1	DNF		13