W2 Pro GP’s Raphael Reis and Felipe Lapenna took victory in the TCR South America endurance race at Interlagos in Brazil, seeing off team-mate Raphael Reis and Jorge Barrio by over five seconds, although it was not their team-mates behind on the road.
At the start, it was Diego Nunes who leapt into the lead in his Cobra Racing Toyota from fifth on the grid, although his lead would only last for the opening two laps.
Going into the Senna ‘S’ on lap three, Juan Ángel Rosso pulled off a pass for the lead, and the Paladini Racing Toyota racer would control the next six laps.
However, Osman, who had dropped a place to third at the start, soon passed Nunes for second on lap four and set about catching Rosso.
By lap eight he was all over Rosso, and on the ninth lap Osman passed at the first corner to take the lead.
The Brazilian stayed out for another eight laps after moving to the front, before pitting to hand over to co-driver Lapenna in the mandatory pit-stop window of laps 17 to 22 in the 60-minute race.
Whilst that briefly gave Rosso, and then Adalberto Baptista, the lead, Lapenna put the #28 W2 CUPRA back in front on lap 22 at the end of the pitstop period, and he would not lose the lead thereafter.
It gives both Osman and Lapenna a first win in the series, moving the former up to fifth overall in the drivers’ standings with 150 points, 35 adrift of the leader.
“I’m very happy,” said Osman. “Felipe did a great job. We come from an endurance date where we had very bad luck in qualifying. We knew that we were going to be very strong in at home. It is the circuit in which we have run the most in our lives. Everything was perfect.”
Reis and Barrio were classified second in their CUPRA, but only after Nunes and co-driver Thiago Vivacqua had been handed a post-race 90-second time penalty for not complying with the minimum pitstop time.
The Brazilian Toyota duo would otherwise have finished in a fine second, but instead were listed in ninth. Consequently, the Squadra Martino Honda of Juan Manuel Casella and Gaetano di Mauro was promoted into the final podium position.
Rosso and co-driver Luciano Farroni were fourth, ahead of team-mates Fabián Yannantuoni and his co-driver Beto Monteiro in fifth.
Pedro Cardoso and Mathias de Valle ensured the only Hyundai in the field was classified in sixth, having had a strong end to the race after dropping back at the start.
Although classified as a finisher, pole-sitter Ignacio Montenegro and Lucas Russell were 18th and six laps down after late-race dramas. They had been running in seventh, having dropped to fifth at the start after complaining of reflections on the starting lights along with several other drivers, before being forced to retire.
Amongst the retirements, Bernardo Llaver and Gaston Iansa failed to finish after Llaver lost a wheel on the Toyota Team Argentina Corolla at two-thirds distance.
Montenegro continues to lead the drivers’ standings despite a non-score, with 185 points, ahead of Reis (168), Casella (157), Llaver (151) and Osman (150).
The next round of TCR South America is at Rivera in Uruguay on 22 – 23 July.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 28 |  |
Galid OSMAN | |
Felipe LAPENNA | W2 Pro GP | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 34 | 1:01:44.680 | 1:44.472 | 2 | |
| 2 | 77 | |
Raphael REIS |  |
Jorge BARRIO | W2 Pro GP | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 34 | 5.174 | 1:45.220 | 5 | |
| 3 | 60 |  |
Juan Manuel CASELLA | |
Gaetano DI MAURO | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 34 | 5.702 | 1:44.492 | 3 | |
| 4 | 2 | |
Juan Ángel ROSSO | |
Luciano FARRONI | Paladini Racing | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 34 | 14.637 | 1:44.723 | 6 | |
| 5 | 5 | |
Fabián YANNANTUONI | |
Beto MONTEIRO | Paladini Racing | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 34 | 41.157 | 1:45.229 | 12 | |
| 6 | 43 | |
Pedro CARDOSO | |
Mathias DE VALLE | Scuderia Chiarelli | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 34 | 46.388 | 1:45.415 | 8 | |
| 7 | 10 | |
Adalberto BAPTISTA | |
Bruno BAPTISTA | Cobra Racing Team | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 34 | 1:22.423 | 1:45.310 | 13 | |
| 8 | 21 | |
Marcio BASSO | |
Gonzalo ALTERIO | PMO Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 34 | 1:25.493 | 1:45.941 | 17 | |
| 9 | 70 | |
Diego NUNES | |
Thiago VIVACQUA | Cobra Racing Team | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 34 | 1:30.609 | 1:45.153 | 7 | |
| 10 | 24 | |
Frederick BALBI | |
Nelson MARCONDES | PMO Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 34 | 2:11.579 | 1:45.961 | 14 | |
| 11 | 34 | |
Fabio CASAGRANDE | |
Franco COSCIA | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 33 | + 1 LAP | 1:46.750 | 20 | |
| 12 | 55 | |
Diego GUTIERREZ | |
Gustavo FERNIGRINI | PMO Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 33 | + 1 LAP | 1:47.525 | 19 | |
| 13 | 8 | |
Rafael SUZUKI | |
Matías SIGNORELLI | PMO Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 33 | + 1 LAP | 1:46.294 | 15 | |
| 14 | 12 | |
Claudio RAMA | |
Leandro RAMA | PMO Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 33 | + 1 LAP | 1:45.844 | 18 | |
| 15 | 72 | |
Lucas SALLES | |
Marcos REGADAS | PMO Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 32 | + 2 LAPS | 1:45.684 | 9 | |
| 16 | 15 | |
Enrique MAGLIONE | |
Rodrigo ARAMENDIA | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 32 | + 2 LAPS | 1:47.256 | 16 | |
| 17 | 33 | |
José Manuel SAPAG | |
Marcelo CIARROCCHI | Toyota Team Argentina | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 32 | + 2 LAPS | 1:46.288 | 11 | |
| 18 | 23 | |
Ignacio MONTENEGRO | |
Lucas COLOMBO RUSSELL | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 28 | + 6 LAPS | 1:44.877 | 1 | |
| R | 17 | |
Bernardo LLAVER | |
Gaston IANSA | Toyota Team Argentina | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 24 | DNF | 1:44.994 | 4 | |
| R | 7 | |
Juan Pablo BESSONE | |
Facundo MARQUES | PMO Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 11 | DNF | 1:46.072 | 10 | |
| R | 37 | |
Guilherme REISCHL | |
Guilherme SALAS | PMO Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 6 | DNF | 1:44.132 | 21 |