Facundo Ardusso wins qualifying race in Buenos Aires season opener
Facundo Ardusso of Renault Sport has won the qualifying race of the Super TC 2000 season opener at the Oscar y Juan Gálvez circuit in Buenos Aires. The reigning champion started from pole position and won the race, leading from lights to flag ahead of YPF Chevrolet’s Agustín Canapino and Renault Sport’s Leonel Pernía.
At the start, Ardusso held onto the lead and tried to pull away from Canapino, who never let him go during the 12 laps of the race.
Canapino did his best to catch Ardusso, as Pernía in third place represented no danger to his no. 86 Chevrolet Cruze, but could not get close enough to seriously challenge for the lead.
On a damp track, the 29-year-old champion dominated the whole race and won by seven tenths of a second for Renault.
Mariano Werner stayed behind the top three, pulling away from Renault Sport’s new signing Martín Moggia, who joined from Citroën Total Racing, in fifth.
Bernardo Llaver was the second best driver of YPF Chevrolet, as he finished in sixth place, Matías Rossi crossed the line in seventh as the highest finishing Toyota Corolla driver, as José Manuel Urcera did the same for Citroën Total Racing in eighth.
On his racing return to his native country after his WTCC campaign with Polestar Cyan Racing last year, Néstor Girolami was ninth for Team Peugeot Total Argentina and Citroën Total Racing’s new signing Facundo Chapur rounded off the top ten.
The first feature race of the season will start at 12:00 local time (GMT -3) today, scheduled for 33 laps or 50 minutes. For the first time since the Radical V8 engines were introduced, the race will have a standing start.
