Photo: TCR South America

Ignacio Montenegro charges to second consecutive win at Rosario

Squadra Martino driver Ignacio Montenegro (Honda) performed an impressive recovery drive to win TCR South America Race 2 at Rosario ahead of his team-mate Juan Manuel Casella.

Manuel Sapag of Toyota Team Argentina took the lead from the reversed grid pole position at the start, followed by the Lynk & Co 03 TCR drivers Fabricio Pezzini and Rafael Suzuki of PMO Motorsport, with Casella in fourth place.

Casella overtook Suzuki for third place early on, but the safety car was called into action when Fréderick Balbi (Lynk & Co) crashed out of the race during the opening lap due to a technical issue.

The race was relaunched on lap five, with Sapag keeping the lead ahead of Pezzini and Casella. The Squadra Martino driver soon overtook the reigning champion for second place.

Meanwhile, Race 1 winner Montenegro was already up to fifth place on lap six from tenth on the grid, clocking the fastest lap of the race.

Toyota driver Bernardo Llaver was also on the move, having started from ninth on the grid. Llaver overtook fellow Toyota driver Fabian Yannantuoni for sixth place on lap seven.

Montenegro passed Suzuki for fourth place on lap seven, as Casella closed the gap to Sapag at the front.

Casella then overtook Sapag for the lead on lap ten, as Montenegro made a move on Pezzini to climb up to third place. The championship leader didn’t hesitate and overtook Sapag on lap eleven to take second place.

Pezzini stopped on lap twelve due to a technical issue, as Montenegro closed the gap to his team-mate for the lead. Llaver was also up to fourth place, putting pressure on Sapag in the fight for the last step of the podium.

Montenegro stole the lead from Casella on lap 14 and won the race by just over a second ahead of Casella, with Sapag completing the podium after managing late attacks from Llaver and Rosso.

Suzuki was sixth, ahead of Yannantuoni and Raphael Reis, driving a Cupra León Competición of team W2 Pro GP.

Pedro Cardoso, driving the sole Hyundai Elantra N TCR of the field, was ninth, with Squadra Martino Fabio Casagrande completing the top ten.

Montenegro leads the TCR South America championship on 155 points, 42 ahead of Llaver and 60 over Casella.

The next round of the TCR South America takes place at Termas de Rio Hondo on the 29-30th of April.