Facundo Ardusso takes pole for Peugeot at Paraná

Facundo Ardusso has taken his first pole position for the Peugeot Cobra Team at Paraná and the second of his TC 2000 career, depriving Chevrolet of a 1-2 in the final moments of qualifying at the series finale.

The 23-year-old set the best time in the final qualifying segment of 1:29.438 to beat the Chevrolet duo of Christian Ledesma and Agustín Canapino, who trailed Ardusso’s Peugeot 307 by less than a tenth of a second.

Matías Rossi was the best placed of the three Championship contenders in the session. The Toyota Team Argentina driver was fifth quickest in his Corolla, just under seven-tenths of a second down on Ardusso with team-mate and title rival Mariano Werner seventh quickest.

Championship leader Leonel Pernía had a steering problem in the second part of qualifying and could manage no better than 15th in his Equipo Petrobras Honda Civic.

Pernía was just ahead of the three Renault Fluences of Mauro Giallombardo, Martín Serrano and Guillermo Ortelli, with Renault’s Sportteam resting the #40 car this weekend as a mark of respect for former driver Guido Falaschi, whom died in a crash in the Turismo Carretera series two weeks ago.

Bernardo Llaver crashed his Toyota Team Argentina Corolla out of Q2 to end the session early whilst in 12th place, whilst Juan Manual Silva struggled with oversteer in his Ford Focus in Q3 and ended up eighth fastest.

In the Championship standings, Pernía has a slim two point lead over Mariano Werner, who in turn is just two points ahead of Matías Rossi going into the final round of the season.

The final race of the 2011 Argentinean TC 2000 Championship takes place at 13:00 local time tomorrow.