José Manuel Urcera and Leonel Pernía disappointed with post-race penalties

Citroën’s Jose Manuel Urcera and Renault’s Leonel Pernía finished 1-2 in the first race of the Argentinian Super TC 2000 Championship season in Buenos Aires, but both drivers were unhappy with the stewards’ call to land reprimands on them for their battle early in race.

Urcera took Citroën’s victory with the brand-new C4 Lounge on its debut, and was thankful to his team while casting comment on the stewards’ decisions.

“It’s amazing to grab this win,” he said. “My car had great pace throughout the weekend. This is an amazing team, with Javier Ciabattari leading us, anything can happen. As for (Leonel) Pernía, I think they were race incidents, both moves were, we respected each other.”

His Renault rival echoed his sentiment after a tough race: “My car was strong enough to win, so I’m a bit upset,” said Perníá . “On the other hand, we did a nice race. We had good pace, and I could get second place back from Rossi at the end.

“This circuit leaves no room for overtaking. I attacked a lot from the beginning, and on this layout it’s really easy to take care of your position when your tyres run out. As for the clashes with Urcera, I think his car had lots of oversteer at the beginning. He closed my line the first time I tried to cut to the inside and overtake him, then we ran all through Turns 1 and 2 side-by-side. When I was overtaking him I feel he hit me. However, iff both moves were valid, I see no reason to be reprimanded.”