Photo: Super TC 2000 Media

Esteban Guerrieri leads second practice in Santa Fe

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Esteban Guerrieri has set the fastest time of both training sessions at the streets of Santa Fe, followed by last season’s winners, Agustín Canapino and Facundo Ardusso.

Group B started the action once again, this time it was Lucas Colombo Russell, in the privateer Escuderia FE Peugeot 408, who took the lead initially with a time of 1:37.860, just seven-tenths behind the benchmark set by Matías Rossi’s Toyota Corolla in Practice 1. Behind him was his team-mate Luciano Farroni, who had invited Tom Coronel to the last edition of Buenos Aires 200 km.

Later in the sessin, Renault Sport drivers Ignacio Julián and Germán Sirvent improved on Colombo Russell’s time, before Facundo Chapur usurped all of them with a lap of 1:37.171, thrashing Rossi’s time from Practice 1.

Toyota’s Rafael Morgenstern was next to take over, putting his Corolla on top, breaking the 1:37 barrier for the first time this weekend with a time of 1:36.879, ahead of YPF Chevrolet’s Manuel Mallo and Farroni, but at the end of the group’s session, there was further improvement as Christian Ledesma put his Renault Fluence GT fastest.

Leonel Pernía placed his Fluence GT right behind his team-mate Ledesma when Group A went out on track. The track conditions did not improve much, so times remained stable for some time.

Then the improvements came as Renault’s Facundo Ardusso climbed to the top of the time sheets with a 1:36.753, ahead of Mariano Werner’s Peugeot 408. The Renault pair of Ledesma and Pernía remained behind, followed by Morgenstern and Rossi’s Toyotas.

When reaching the last minutes, Emiliano Spataro climbed to the top, but was then beaten by José-Manuel Urcera, Esteban Guerrieri, Leonel Pernía and once again, Agustín Canapino. The last lap of Canapino brought the time down to 1:35.992, breaking the 1:36 level.

Then it was Guerrieri who took his Toyota to the top, passing Canapino with a time of 1:35.987. Ardusso finished in thirrd, followed by Werner, Pernía and former Formula 1 driver Norberto Fontana. Urcera, Spataro, Matías Milla and Bernardo Llaver rounded out the top ten.

The qualifying session will start at 17:30 ART, with the 28 drivers split into three groups. The best lap of each one will generate Saturday night’s race, whilst the second best time will be used to form Sunday’s race grid.