PMO Motorsport’s Fabrizio Pezzini won the final race of the inaugural TCR South America series, as W2 Racing’s Pepe Oriola clinched the drivers’ title by finishing in second.
Adalberto Baptista started the reversed grid race from pole position, with Fabio Casagrande alongside in the older-spec Squadra Martino Honda.
At the start, Ernesto Bessone jumped the lights by some margin and flew into the lead, having also seen Adalberto Baptista creep at the start, whilst behind him Juan Pablo Bessone moved from third on the grid up to second.
Fabricio Pezzini, meanwhile, was quickly up to third by the second corner in his PMO Motorsport Lynk & Co, whilst Pepe Oriola was in sixth by the third corner, the points leader having started from eighth, with his only rival, Rodrigo Baptista, directly behind.
At the end of the first lap, Raphael Reis peeled into the pitlane, before rejoining the race.
On lap four, Dorian Mansilla got past team-mate Casagrande for what became third, followed by Oriola, as Ernesto Bessone peeled into the pits to serve a drive-through penalty for his jump start.
Oriola actually lost out to Rodrigo Baptista on lap six, but later in the race he would regain the lost ground after a conservative start.
On lap eight, race leader Juan Pablo Bessone’s bonnet began to peel up as he came under pressure from Pezzini, and the Squadra Martino driver then lost the lead on lap nine to the PMO Motorsport driver.
By lap 12, Oriola had completed enough of the race to be classified no matter what happened, securing him the title as the points he would gain would be enough for an unassailable margin over Baptista.
As Bessone defended second from Squadra Martino team-mate Mansilla on lap ten, Rodrigo Baptista snuck into third, and by lap 13 he was pressuring Bessone for second.
Oriola then got by Mansilla at the final corner for fourth at the end of lap 13, bringing the Spaniard onto the back of his Brazilian title rival.
Oriola then passed Baptista for third on lap 14, with the Cobra Racing driver then being contacted by Mansilla and muscled off the circuit, dropping him to sixth as Mansilla and Casagrande gained places.
On the penultimate lap, Oriola passed Bessone for second, with Mansilla taking the final podium place halfway around the last lap, despite final corner contact between the team-mates.
Rodrigo Baptista was fifth, ahead of Casagrande in sixth and Ernesto Bessone in seventh.
After his pitstop, Reis could only manage eighth, whilst Adalberto Baptista was also a lap down after serving his own drive-through penalty.
Oriola clinched the inaugural TCR South America title by 31 points ahead of Rodrigo Baptista.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 113 |  |
Fabricio PEZZINI | PMO Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 16 | 16 LAPS | 6 | ||
| 2 | 74 |  |
Pepe ORIOLA | W2 Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 16 | 0.595 | 8 | ||
| 3 | 170 | |
Dorian MANSILLA | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 16 | 6.607 | 5 | ||
| 4 | 133 | |
Juan Pablo BESSONE | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 16 | 7.095 | 3 | ||
| 5 | 13 |  |
Rodrigo BAPTISTA | Cobra Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 16 | 7.795 | 9 | ||
| 6 | 16 | |
Fabio CASAGRANDE | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK2 TCR | 16 | 8.382 | 2 | ||
| 7 | 44 | |
Ernesto BESSONE | PMO Motorsport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 16 | 27.648 | 4 | ||
| 8 | 77 | |
Raphael REIS | W2 Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 15 | + 1 LAP | 7 | ||
| 9 | 10 | |
Adalberto BAPTISTA | Cobra Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 15 | + 1 LAP | 1 |