Urrutia and Pezzini win as Oriola ekes out championship advantage

PMO Motorsport’s Santiago Urrutia and Fabricio Pezzini shared the wins in TCR South America in Córdoba in Argentina, as W2 Racing’s Pepe Oriola edged out a further lead in the drivers’ standings.

In qualifying on Saturday, it was Lynk & Co racer Pezzini who headed PMO team-mate Urrutia by less than a tenth of a second, with Raphael Reis being the best of the full-season drivers in third in his W2 Racing Honda, over a second off the pace.

The opening race on Sunday was the reversed grid race, with Cobra Racing’s Adalberto Baptisata starting on pole ahead of PropCar’s Javier Manta and Oriola in third.

At the start, Oriola leapt into the lead when the lights went out, as Manta took second from Baptista around the outside at Turn 1.

By Turn 2, Urrutia was up into third, having started from eighth on the grid, with José Manuel Sapag hauling his Honda into fourth.

Manta could only hold second for the opening lap, and Urrutia claimed second on the run up to turn two, before setting off closing down Oriola’s early lead.

Oriola didn’t put up much of a fight for Urrutia, who isn’t in the title race, and the Uruguayan passed for the lead going into Turn 10 on the third lap.

Thereafter, Urrutia was able to open up a comfortable margin without coming under attack from behind, whilst Oriola came home with his seventh podium finish of the season, ahead of Sapag in third, who had also got by Manta on the second lap.

Rodrigo Baptista was in fourth in the early stages of the race, but after Pezzini got by Manta on lap three, he was onto the back of the duel between Sapag and Rodrigo Baptista ahead.

Baptista tried numerous times to get past Sapag’s Honda, but to no avail and on lap 15 he lost out to Pezzini on the run to Turn 2, with the Lynk & Co driver then trying to pressure his way past Sapag.

Baptista was thus fifth behind Pezzini, with the second W2 Honda of Raphael Reis in sixth, having been pushed off the circuit on lap five by Matías Cravero.

Cravero was seventh, ahead of Adalberto Baptista and Squadra Martino’s Fabio Casagrande in ninth.

Manta ultimately retired after 12 laps when he pulled his Alfa Romeo off the circuit, whilst Valdeno Brito retired on lap two.

Ernesto Bessone, in PMO’s Peugeot 308 TCR, failed to take the start due to a gearbox issue.

Race one result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	96			Santiago URRUTIA	PMO Motorsport	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	17	27:12.132	1:34.746	8
2	74			Pepe ORIOLA	W2 Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	17	1.044	1:35.332	3
3	33			José Manuel SAPAG	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	17	4.742	1:35.233	4
4	113			Fabricio PEZZINI	PMO Motorsport	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	17	4.850	1:35.087	9
5	13			Rodrigo BAPTISTA	Cobra Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	17	5.417	1:34.373	5
6	77			Raphael REIS	W2 Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	17	11.685	1:34.971	7
7	70			Matías CRAVERO	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	17	12.859	1:35.682	11
8	10			Adalberto BAPTISTA	Cobra Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	17	26.453	1:36.295	1
9	16			Fabio CASAGRANDE	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FK2 TCR	17	1:07.265	1:36.843	12
R	95			Javier MANTA	PropCar Racing Team	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR	12	DNF	1:35.819	2
R	177			Valdeno BRITO	PropCar Racing Team	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR	1	DNF	N/A	10
NS	44			Ernesto BESSONE	PMO Motorsport	Peugeot 308 TCR	–	DNS	N/A	6

Pole-sitter Pezzini held his lead at the start of race two, but only with the PMO cars boxing in the fast-starting Honda of Reis, who gained second at the expense of Urrutia on the run to Turn 2, with Sapag and Rodrigo Baptista also following through at the next corners.

Reis kept Pezzini honest early in the race, whilst Sapag began to act as a cork in the bottle ahead of Rodrigo Baptista and Urrutia.

On lap five Urrutia muscled past Baptista for fourth, quickly closing in on Sapag and taking third a lap later at almost the same part of the circuit.

By lap seven, Oriola had closed in on his championship rival in the battle for fifth, rubbing Rodrigo Baptista’s Audi several times.

Baptista barged past Sapag for fourth on lap nine, and an off-line Sapag then lost fifth to Oriola at the next corner.

Urrutia, meanwhile, closed in on Reis for second and on lap 11 he claimed second when Reis ran slightly wide going through the final corner.

By this stage, Pezzini was several seconds up the road and Urrutia couldn’t close the gap, with Pezzini claiming a maiden win by a second and a half ahead of Urrutia.

Reis completed the podium, ahead of Rodrigo Baptista in fourth and Oriola in fifth.

Cravero got by Squadra Martino team-mate Sapag three laps from the end to take sixth, ahead of Sapag in seventh and Manta in eighth.

Valdeno Brito was last, two laps down, after having to pit due to mechanical issues, whilst Bessone once again failed to take the start after his earlier gearbox problems.

TCR South America concludes at the Autódromo Concepción del Uruguay on 18 – 19 December.

Race two result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	113			Fabricio PEZZINI	PMO Motorsport	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	14	22:10.274	1:34.364	1
2	96			Santiago URRUTIA	PMO Motorsport	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	14	1.473	1:33.892	2
3	77			Raphael REIS	W2 Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	14	5.026	1:34.370	3
4	13			Rodrigo BAPTISTA	Cobra Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	14	7.828	1:34.797	5
5	74			Pepe ORIOLA	W2 Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	14	10.925	1:34.859	7
6	70			Matías CRAVERO	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	14	15.893	1:35.169	12
7	33			José Manuel SAPAG	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	14	21.696	1:35.046	6
8	95			Javier MANTA	PropCar Racing Team	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR	14	26.983	1:35.749	8
9	10			Adalberto BAPTISTA	Cobra Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	14	39.975	1:35.901	9
10	16			Fabio CASAGRANDE	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FK2 TCR	14	41.416	1:35.912	10
11	177			Valdeno BRITO	PropCar Racing Team	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR	12	+ 2 LAPS	1:35.255	11
NS	44			Ernesto BESSONE	PMO Motorsport	Peugeot 308 TCR	–	DNS	N/A	4