Facundo Ardusso takes lights-to-flag night win in Santa Fe

Renault Sport driver Facundo Ardusso won Race 1 at the Santa Fe street circuit, followed by Toyota Gazoo Racing Argentina’s Matías Rossi, and YPF Chevrolet’s Agustín Canapino on the podium.

Facundo Ardusso started from pole position ahead of team-mate Leonel Pernía, with Rossi heading row two ahead of YPF Chevrolet’s Bernardo Llaver.

Llaver then rubbed the wall at the start when Rossi fought with him on the first lap, while a four-car incident behind between Fabián Yannantuoni and Antonino Garcia’s Peugeots, Bruno Etman’s Toyota and Emiliano Spataro’s Renault brought out the safety car.

When the race resumed, Ardusso began to pull a gap on Pernía, who was holding Rossi behind, with Llaver in fourth ahead of the Toyota of Matias Milla.

Milla grabbed fourth from Llaver with a move at Turn 1 on lap three, with Llaver now under attack from Gabriel Ponce de León’s Toyota, who soon passed Llaver’s Cruze.

Up ahead, Pernia’s race ended on lap five, when he rear-right suspension failed, forcing him to retire and promoting Rossi to second, now followed by his two Toyota team-mates Milla and Ponce de León.

Ponce de León dropped two spots after a mistake on lap 13, and fell behind Llaver’s Chevrolet and the Peugeot of Mariano Werner.

Llaver now spent the middle part of the race defending hard against Werner’s 408, but a failed move by Werner later in the race saw him lose a position to Ponce de León’s Toyota, and then as he cut the chicane, he was forced to concede a further spot to Agustín Canapino in the Chevrolet.

During the final laps, the safety car was out again after Damián Fineschi crashed out his Ford Focus, with three laps added to the race distance.

As the race resumed, Rossi hada run at Ardusso, while behind their was chaos as Llaver crashed into Milla’s third-placed Toyota, with Milla dropping two spots while Llaver plummeted down the order.

Milla was now defending from Werner’s Peugeot, but the two drivers had contact, with Milla now out of the points entirely, while Werner dropped back to ninth.

After all this, Canapino found himself in third position, finishing just ahead of the Citroen of Esteban Guerrieri,with Matías Muñoz Marchesi the best-placed of the Peugeots in fifth.

Ardusso now takes the lead of the championship heading into the second race of the weekend, which is scheduled for 12:15 ART tomorrow.