Agustín Canapino leads Peugeot 1-2 in qualifying at Rafaela

Peugeot’s new signing Agustín Canapino secured pole position in his first race for the team at the Rafaela circuit, finishing ahead of team-mate Néstor Girolami, despite stopping on circuit in the final part of qualifying.

In the first part of qualifying, Equipo Petronas Fiat’s Facundo Ardusso set the initial benchmark with a time of 1:16.607 around the oval-esque circuit, but this was soon surpassed by the Peugeot 408 of Néstor Girolami, who went fastest with a time of 1:16.347, which was not beaten throughout the rest of Q1.

Reigning champion Matías Rossi was second fastest overall in his Toyota Team Argentina-run Corolla, consistently close to the Peugeots in qualifying, and was just 0.068 seconds behind Girolami, with Bernardo Llaver third fastest in the sister Toyota.

With Q1 split into two groups, the second group saw Toyota’s new signing Esteban Guerrieri the fastest of the bunch, setting a time which was good enough to go fourth fastest overall, with Peugeot’s new driver Julían Santero the second quickest in Group B, ending up sixth, just behind Ardusso.

Dropping out at the end of Q1 were the four independent entries of Daniel Belli and Javier Manta of Lanus Motorsport in their Chevrolet Cruzes, Gonzalo Fernandez of JM Motorsport, also in a Cruze, and the Ford Focus of Nicolas Traut. Also not progressing to Q2 was Facundo Chapur’s Peugeot Lequipe Junior entry and the Renault Fluence of Guillermo Ortelli.

Q2 was also split into two parts, with the slowest ten from Q1 going first, of which the fastest was Mariano Werner, now at the Equipo Petronas Fiat squad, having moved across from Toyota at the end of last season. Werner finished the first part of Q2 ahead of Matías Muñoz Marchesi’s Chevrolet Cruze and Leonel Pernía’s Renault Fluence.

In the second part of Q2, Néstor Girolami again dominated the timesheets, setting a time of 1:16.195 to go fastest overall ahead of new team-mate Agustín Canapino, with reigning champion Matíás Rossi third fastest in his Toyota.

Mariano Werner, Matías Muñoz Marchesi and Leonel Pernía’s times were good enough from the first segment to get them through to Q3, but returning two-time champion Norberto Fontana’s time just fell short of the mark, and he wound up 11th in his Equipo YPF Chevrolet Cruze.

Facundo Ardusso was another big name to fail to make the top ten. Despite attempts to improve his time while slipstreaming with new team-mate Christian Ledesma, Ardusso was only able to set the 13th fastest time, just under half a second down on the time of Girolami, with Ledesma himself down in 18th, leaving Werner as the only Fiat in the top ten.

In Q3, Girolami was outpaced for the first time in qualifying by new team-mate Agustín Canapino, who set a time of 1:16.024 to take pole position, with Girolami securing a Peugeot Lo Jack Team 1-2, just under two-tenths of a second down.

Matías Rossi was third fastest in his Toyota Corolla, with Matías Muñoz Marchesi the fastest of the Chevrolet drivers in fourth and Mariano Werner fifth fastest in his Fiat Linea.

Esteban Guerrieri was sixth on his full-time Super TC 2000 debut with Toyota, with Franco Vivian seventh for Chevrolet, Leonel Pernía eighth in his Renault, Julián Santero an impressive ninth on his debut for Peugeot, and Toyota’s Bernardo Llaver rounding out the top ten.

Pole-sitter Canapino stopped out on the circuit before the end of the session but didn’t impede anyone on their final runs.

Tomorrow, there will be two eight lap heats at 9:15 and 9:45 ART to set the final grid before the main 22 lap race at 12:30 ART.