Matías Rossi takes dominant victory at La Pampa

Toyota’s Matías Rossi dominated the Super TC 2000 race at the La Pampa circuit in the rural region in central Argentina, and extends his points lead to 35 over Fiat’s Facundo Ardusso.

After setting the fastest time in qualifying, Rossi also won the Super 8 qualifying hit to start from pole position for the race in his Toyota Corolla, starting ahead of Equipo Petronas Fiat driver Ardusso on the grid.

Rossi held on the the lead at the start, but the first safety car of the race was called before the end of the first lap as Facundo Chapur’s Escuderia FE Volkswagen Vento required recovery from the circuit after being involved in an incident with Honda’s Damian Fineschi. Fineschi was forced to pull into the pits to retire which was a double blow for the Japanese manufacturer, with Ricardo Risatti already missing the race due to an engine problem discovered just before the race began, leaving Christian Ledesma as the team’s sole representative.

At the restart, Rossi began to pull away in the lead whilst second placed Ardusso found himself under pressure from the Renault Fluence of Emiliano Spataro. At the end of lap six, Spataro briefly passed Ardusso’s Fiat, but Ardusso sprung back and repassed the 37-year-old on the second turn of lap seven.

On the tenth lap, Spataro dropped another spot to Mariano Werner’s charging Toyota, with the 24-year-old out-dragging Spataro’s Renault down the straight to move up into a podium position.

There was a second safety car intervention on lap 16 when the Lanus Motorsport Chevrolet Cruze of Daniel Belli stopped on circuit, which wiped out Rossi’s two second lead over Ardusso. The race began again after just two laps behind the safety car, with Bernardo Llaver launching past Spataro’s Renault for fourth at the restart to put three Toyotas in the top four positions.

Further down the order, Ardusso’s team-mate and three-time champion José María López pulled into the pits to retire, after running in 13th place in a lacklustre race for the former champion.

Rossi managed to defend against Ardusso to claim his third consecutive win of the season, with Ardusso crossing the line just under three-tenths of a second behind and Mariano Werner completing the podium.

Bernardo Llaver finished fourth for Toyota with Emiliano Spataro the top placed Renault in fifth ahead of the Chevrolet Cruze of Agustín Canapino. Behind Canapino were the two Renaults of Guillermo Ortelli and Leonel Pernía, with Néstor Girolami the highest positioned Peugeot driver in ninth and Gerardo Salaverria completing the top ten in the PSG16 Team Ford Focus.

Rossi’s win extends his lead in the standings to 103 points, whilst Ardusso moves back into second position in the standings on 68. Rossi’s two Toyota Team Argentina team-mates Mariano Werner and Bernardo Llaver are third and fourth in the standings on 62 and 58 points respectively, with López dropping to fifth place on 49 points.

The next round of the Championship takes place at Córdoba in three weeks’ time on 23rd June.