Juan Ángel Rosso romps to El Pinar pole in TCR South America

Juan Ángel Rosso was fastest in qualifying for TCR South America’s secound Uruguayan round at El Pinar.

Rosso was third fastest in Q1 in his Honda Civic Type R, just over a tenth-and-a-half of a second slower than pacesetter José Manuel Sapag (driving a Lynk & Co 03) and 0.041s slower than Raphael Reis (in a Cupra León Competición), but had been the driver to beat early on.

He had set two laps that nobody could match until Sapag came out with a 1:10.248 effort that put him 0.215s ahead. The advantage then returned to Rosso as set a 1:09.974, but Sapag responded and Reis went faster too.

With 13 cars taking part, it meant only one driver did not progress to Q2 and that was Fabricio Pezzini as he was excluded from 11th place in his Lynk & Co.

Q2 ran in a similar fashion to Q1, with Rosso going to the top straight away and then waiting to see what his rivals could muster.

In the end, nobody could and it was left to Rosso to use his last flying lap to improve anyway to a 1:09.713 pace.

Reis was second fastest, but 0.559s slower than Rosso, and Juan Manuel Casella was the only other driver within a second of the pace. Sapag only qualified ninth.