Facundo Ardusso and Mariano Altuna dominate the Buenos Aires 200km

Renault Sport driver Facundo Ardusso and co-driver Mariano Altuna won the 200 kilometre Super TC 2000 race of Buenos Aires in dominating fashion.

The duo was followed on the podium by Citroën Total Racing’s Facundo Chapur with co-driver Marcelo Ciarrocchi in second place and Toyota Gazoo Racing Argentina’s Julián Santero with Uruguayan co-driver Santiago Urrutia in third place.

The 200 kilometre Buenos Aires race featured mandatory driver changes during the pit stop, meaning that all regular driver had a co-driver.

Ardusso’s co-driver Altuna started from pole position with Luis José Di Palma, co-driver to Emiliano Spataro, right behind.

Three-time WTCC champion José María López, co-driver to Toyota driver Matías Rossi, managed to overtake Di Palma for second place on lap two. The duo made contact during the overtaking move and the Renault driver recovered second place not long after.

López repeated the move into turn one a lap later and again moved up to second – this time keeping the position and quickly opened up a gap to Di Palma.

Rafael Morgenstern, co-driver to Sportteam’s Matías Milla retired on lap two, at the same time as Néstor Girolami had to pit with engine issues in his factory-entered Peugeot 408.

López was a man on the move during the opening five laps and managed to set the fastest lap of the race, quickly shortening the gap to leading driver Altuna.

Rookie driver Santiago Mallo of RAM Racing collided with Emanuel Moriatis, co-driver to José Manuel Urcera of Citroën Total Racing, at the Ascari Turn. Both drivers managed to continue.

Leonel Pernía was another driver on the move in his factory-prepared Renault Fluence, moving up to third on lap seven from eighth on the grid, one of the few regular driver starting the race together with the co-drivers.

Franco Vivian, co-driver to Agustin Canapino, entered the pits on lap ten due an exhaust fire on his Chevrolet Cruze and had to retire from the race. Vivian jumped out of the car, seemingly affected by the smoke from the fire.

The pit stop window for driver change was open from lap 25 to 35 and López immediately entered the pits from second place on lap 25 to hand the #17 Toyota Corolla to regular driver Rossi. Di Palma and Lambiris followed suit shortly after, holding third place.

Leading driver Altuna entered pits one lap later to give the car back to Ardusso, who rejoined the track still ahead of the Toyota rival Rossi.

Disaster struck for Rossi moments later after running wide at turn one and retired, meaning his title chances were completely over.

Another retirement came when ex F1 driver Norberto Fontana, co-driver to Renault driver Leonel Pernía, entered pits with engine issues on lap 34. The duo was holding third place at that stage, allowing Citroën driver Facundo Chapur to inherit the position.

The race finished under the 75-minute limit with Ardusso as winner.

Llaver secured fourth position, followed by Toyota driver Manuel Luque and Peugeot driver Fabían Yannantuoni in sixth.

Emiliano Spataro dropped to tenth position on the last lap after being forced to pit due to a punctured front-left tyre.

The result has Ardusso in the championship lead on 219 points, 23 points ahead of Canapino. The duo are alone in being able to claim this year’s title as the retirements of Rossi and Pernía in this race has taken them out of the battle.

The Super TC 2000 season finale will be held at Córdoba on November 25th.