Leonel Pernía leads a Renault 1-2 in Buenos Aires premiere
Leonel Pernía of Renault Sport won the opening round of the Super TC 2000 season in Buenos Aires. He was joined on the podium by his team-mate and reigning champion Facundo Ardusso, who won the qualifying race, with Team Peugeot Total Argentina’s Mariano Werner in third.
Ardusso started from pole position but Chevrolet driver Agustin Canapino made a better start, the first standing start of the championship since the introduction of the Radical V8 engines in a championship race.
Matías Rossi had a rear axis failure and retired on lap one as Facundo Conta of YPF Chevrolet came into pits to switch tyres from dry to wets on the damp track.
The safety car came out on the first lap, as Manuel Mallo retired his factory Chevrolet Cruze due to a technical error.
The rain was light at the start and threatened to increase when the race was restarted on lap four. As the field got the green light again, Pernía overtook his team-mate and reigning champion Ardusso to take second place and start chasing leading driver Canapino.
A spectacular collision happened when Julián Santero of Toyota Gazoo Racing Argentina and Facundo Chapur of Citroën Total Racing were in the pits. The Toyota driver was rejoining the fast lane when the Citroën crew released their car ahead of him. As result, Chapur spun his car in the pits.
José Manuel Urcera of Citroën Total Racing spun off after contact from Matías Muñoz Marchesi of Team Peugeot Total Argentina and retired on lap six.
Alessandro Salerno, in his Peugeot 408 of the rebranded Peugeot Junior Team, spun off on lap 11 and forced safety car out again as the rain ceased. 15 cars were remaining in the race.
Pernía went off track briefly while the safety car was on track but was able to keep second place.
On lap 17 Canapino’s Chevrolet started to expel smoke, which allowed Pernía to close to 2016 series champion. The 27-year-old driver had to retire from the lead one lap later with engine issues.
With further retirements of Martín Moggia of Renault Sport and series rookie Manuel Luque of Toyota Gazoo Racing Argentina, only 11 cars from 22 starting finished the race.
The chequered flag was brought out due to the time limit of the race after 29 of the 33 originally scheduled laps with Pernía as winner and Ardusso securing a Renault 1-2 ahead of Peugeot driver Werner.
Llaver finished fourth in his Chevrolet, followed by series returnee Néstor Girolami of Peugeot and Renault Sports’ Emiliano Spataro in sixth. Fabián Yannantuoni finished seventh in his factory Peugeot 408, ahead of Santero and series newcomer Federico Iribarne of Citroën Total Racing as Muñoz Marchesi rounded off the top ten.
The Super TC 2000 will hold its second round of the season on April 8th in Rosario.
