Mariano Werner wins thrilling feature race in San Juan

Team Peugeot Total Argentina’s Mariano Werner won the Super TC 2000 feature race at the ‘El Zonda’ circuit in San Juan. He was followed on the podium by championship leader Facundo Ardusso of Renault Sport and his team-mate Leonel Pernía.

After his win in the qualifying race on Saturday afternoon, Fineschi had pole position for the feature race, joined by Werner on the front row, with Ardusso and his team-mate Ignacio Julián right behind.

At the start of the race Fineschi kept the lead through the first hairpin, but Werner dived to the inside at the exit and overtook him in the following straight. Later, in the chicane, Ardusso moved up to second.

Bernardo Llaver braked late and lost grip on the dirty part of the circuit when running in tenth and smashed into his team-mate and title contender Agustín Canapino, who dropped from eight to thirteenth but was able to continue.

Emmanuel Cáceres of Fiat Petronas retired on lap six and forced the safety car out, while Fabián Yannantuoni of Team Peugeot Total Argentina and Gabriel Ponce de León of Toyota Gazoo Racing Argentina retired with hydraulics issues.

Julián spun off in the hairpin and dropped back to 22nd at the restart, while Renault Sport’s Leonel Pernía overtook Maías Rossi, who seemed to struggle for pace, for fifth.

Bruno Etman of Toyota Gazoo Racing Argentina smashed hard into the walls on lap 14 at the fast sweeping ‘Snake’ turn after contact with Citroën Total Racing’s Martín Moggia. The 27-year-old driver was able to exit his car on his own and walked back to pits, but with major damage to his car, and the safety car was back on track again.

At the restart, Werner pulled away again from Ardusso, as Fineschi remained in third. Muñoz Marchesi fought hard in fourth, holding Pernía and Rossi behind him. WTCC entrant Esteban Guerrieri of Citroën Total Racing was close to Rossi, at the same time holding reigning champion Agustín Canapino behind him in eigth.

Pernía tried a risky move over Muñoz Marchesi in the ‘Snake’ turn and overtook the #21 Peugeot for fourth on lap 20 of 38.

Werner seemed to go through the ’loop turn’ slowly on lap 21 and Ardusso made contact, with the Peugeot driver waving him through moments later.

Ardusso was warned by the stewards for that move with the black and white flag a lap later, but he complained to his team through radio, accusing Werner of slowing down on purpose.

Behind the leaders, Fineschi was running in third in his privateer Ford Focus, holding up Pernía who tried overtaking with a risky move, Fineschi ran wide entering the hairpin and the Renault Sport driver took his chance at the following straight after hundreds of metres side-by-side. Fineschi had to cut the fast ‘Snake’ turn and gave up his position at the last moment.

Werner, behind the wheel of the Peugeot with #44, crossed the line first to claim his 44th victory. Ardusso crossed the line in second, followed by his team-mate Pernía. Fineschi finished fourth ahead of Muñoz Marchesi, Rossi, Guerrieri, Llaver, Chapur and Canapino.

Ardusso heads the standings with 174 points. Werner is in second, 19 points behind, and Pernía is third, 35 points behind.

Super TC 2000 has two rounds left of the season with General Roca next up on November 26th.