Photo: STC2000

Renault Sport lock out front row as Leonel Pernía claims Córdoba pole

Leonel Pernía of Renault Sport claimed pole position for the Super TC 2000 championship opening round of the 2019 season in Córdoba. He was followed by team-mate Facundo Ardusso in second and Toyota Gazoo Racing Argentina’s Matías Rossi in third.

The new “Super Qualifying” shoot-out format, introduced for the 2019 season, features a final session for the top six. Eliminated from the final session was Tomás Gagliardi Genné (Chevrolet YPF), Mariano Werner (Fiat), Canapino and rookie Marcelo Ciarrocchi (Citroën), claiming grid positions seven to ten.

The top six got a single flying lap in the final part of qualifying, starting in reverse order, meaning the sixth fastest driver form the first qualifying session going out on track first for his lap.

Bernardo Llaver of Chevrolet went out in first and claimed the fourth fastest time and was follwed by Toyota driver Julían Santero who claimed fifth position on the grid, less then a tenth behind Llaver. Next up was Renault Sport driver Mattias Milla who looked set for the fastest time but made a mistake and spun off track, finally crossing the line 24 seconds slower than the top time.

Rossi was next up and set a clean lap to claim third, 0.243 seconds from pole. The Renault duo of Ardusso and Pernía were the two final drivers on track. Ardusso claimed the top spot at first, but Pernía beat him in the last sector, setting the first pole position of the turbo era in Argentinian touring car racing with the lap time of 1:32.782, just 0.045 seconds faster than his team-mate.

The feature race of tomorrow, scheduled for 12:00 local time, will see the return of standing starts in the Super TC 2000 championship.