Raphael Reis secures pole position at Mercedes

W2 Pro GP’s Raphael Reis boosted his TCR South America championship challenge by claiming his seventh career pole position in qualifying at Mercedes in Uruguay.

Reis beat title rival and joint points leader Pedro Cardoso to the top time by over two tenths of a second, having earlier been second fastest to team-mate Galid Osman in the first part of qualifying.

The second part of qualifying was ultimately curtailed early due to significant rain which arrived, bringing out the red flags.

Cardoso was the leading Peugeot driver, whilst Squadra Martino’s Norberto Fontana claimed third with his best qualifying performance of the season.

Fabián Yannantuoni, returning after an event away, was the leading Toyota driver for Paladini Racing in fourth, with Osman putting his CUPRA in fifth.

PMO Racing’s Rafael Suzuki was sixth, ahead of Squadra Martino’s Rodrigo Baptista in seventh.

Eighth-placed Juan Manuel Casella was the only other driver within a second of the pace.

PMO Racing’s Leonel Pernía, who also missed the last round, was ninth, whilst the top ten was completed by Paladini Racing’s guest driver Diego Noceti, the Uruguayan making his TCR début.

That gives Noceti the reverse-grid pole for Sunday’s second race, with Pernía, already a proven race winner in TCR, alongside him.

Toyotas completed the drivers who made it through to Q2, Matías Rossi in the official Corolla in 11^th ahead of joint series leader Juan Ángel Rosso in 12^th, the latter likely to be disappointed with a poor qualifying effort after failing to get a quick lap in during the wet part of Q2, which locks him into starting on the sixth row for both of Sunday’s races.

Q2 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	77		Raphael REIS	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	7	1:29.840	–
2	43		Pedro CARDOSO	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	6	1:30.053	0.213
3	47		Norberto FONTANA	Squadra Martino Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	7	1:30.174	0.334
4	5		Fabián YANNANTUONI	Paladini Racing	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	5	1:30.316	0.476
5	28		Galid OSMAN	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	6	1:30.454	0.614
6	8		Rafael SUZUKI	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	6	1:30.625	0.785
7	3		Rodrigo BAPTISTA	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	7	1:30.630	0.790
8	60		Juan Manuel CASELLA	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	7	1:30.668	0.828
9	44		Leonel PERNÍA	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	6	1:30.926	1.086
10	61		Diego NOCETI	Paladini Racing	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	6	1:31.141	1.301
11	17		Matías ROSSI	Toyota Team Argentina	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	6	1:31.144	1.304
12	16		Juan Ángel ROSSO	Paladini Racing	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	6	1:31.511	1.671

Q1 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	28		Galid OSMAN	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	11	1:18.444	–
2	77		Raphael REIS	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	11	1:18.605	0.161
3	8		Rafael SUZUKI	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	12	1:18.777	0.333
4	44		Leonel PERNÍA	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	12	1:18.784	0.340
5	17		Matías ROSSI	Toyota Team Argentina	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	9	1:18.851	0.407
6	43		Pedro CARDOSO	PMO Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	9	1:19.110	0.666
7	47		Norberto FONTANA	Squadra Martino Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	10	1:19.124	0.680
8	60		Juan Manuel CASELLA	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	5	1:19.184	0.740
9	61		Diego NOCETI	Paladini Racing	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	6	1:19.269	0.825
10	3		Rodrigo BAPTISTA	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	7	1:19.325	0.881
11	5		Fabián YANNANTUONI	Paladini Racing	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	10	1:19.375	0.931
12	16		Juan Ángel ROSSO	Paladini Racing	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	13	1:19.441	0.997
13	34		Fabio CASAGRANDE	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	12	1:19.600	1.156
14	7		Thiago VIVACQUA	Cobra Racing Team	Toyota Corolla GRS TCR	13	1:19.625	1.181
15	15		Enrique MAGLIONE	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	11	1:19.833	1.389
16	37		Guilherme REISCHL	W2 Pro GP	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	12	1:21.376	2.932