Matias Rossi beats Agustin Canapino to victory and keeps minimal title hopes
Toyota Team Argentina’s Matías Rossi won the Sunday race of Super TC2000 at General Roca, followed by Chevrolet YPF’s Agustín Canapino, who needs just half-a-point to win the title in Córdoba. Bernardo Llaver finished third for Fiat Petronas.
”The car has done a significant improvement after Santa Fe, I’m happy for this win, but honestly Agustín (Canapino) is in a perfect position. He deserves it since he did an excellent season, and I lost many points on the first half, but still we have a very little chance,” said Rossi.
The morning qualifying session put Toyota’s Rossi on top, earning one point for setting the fastest pole position of the weekend. He was joined by Chevrolet’s Agustín Canapino on the front row, as his title-rival Facundo Ardusso could only set the sixth fastest time in his Renault. This extra point allowed Rossi to extend the decider to the last round in Córdoba.
Rossi held onto the lead at the start, as Emiliano Spataro’s Renault challenged Canapino’s second place. Bernardo Llaver placed his Fiat in fourth, followed by Ardusso.
Canapino didn’t seem to be as comfortable as he was in Saturday’s race, following a locking-up in the first turn on lap six. Meanwhile, Rossi tried to pull away in his factory Toyota Corolla. His team-mate Esteban Guerrieri retired on lap seven.
On the following laps, Rossi increased his lead as the sky turned dark. The Toyota driver pulled up to three seconds over Canapino, who then just focussed on keeping Spataro behind.
Canapino’s Chevrolet started to smoke on the last two laps and the Chevrolet YPF team held their breath until the checkered flag, but still managed to finish in second following Rossi.
”Our weekend started really tough, but the team did an excellent job, so we could move forward. I lost a bit of pace in the last laps both yesterday and today. Something was about to fail, so I was lucky. I need this luck in Córdoba too, I won’t celebrate yet, Matías is doing great in these last races, so I will just try to score points, that’s all,” said Canapino.
Surprisingly, Spataro slowed down next to the line to allow Ardusso to move one place forward, so Bernardo Llaver finished third with his factory Fiat and Ardusso crossed the finish-line in fourth, but even Facundo Chapur slipped his Peugeot in fifth ahead of Spataro in sixth.
Mariano Werner, Leonel Pernía, Christian Ledesma and Norberto Fontana rounded off the top ten.
The last round will be in Córdoba, on November 26th and 27th. If Rossi doesn’t set pole position in qualifying, Canapino will win the title. As it stands after this race, only the Toyota driver can beat him, as despite his team-mate’s help, Ardusso is already out of the battle.
Rossi, now on 178,5 points, can only win the title if he wins the race from pole position and Canapino, now on 213 points, doesn’t score points at all, by either retiring or finishing outside of the top 15.
