Juan Angel Rosso wins frantic second Oberá race

Juan Angel Rosso won a frantic second and final race of the TCR South America race of the weekend at the Ciudad de Oberá in Misiones, Argentina.

Rosso’s Paladini Racing team-mate Santino Balerini started from the reversed grid pole position and headed the field as the lights went out ahead of Rosso who claimed second from fourth on the grid.

Disaster struck Honda YPF Racing driver Nelson Piquet Jr who suffered a technical issue on the opening lap and pitted to retire from the race.

His team-mate Tiago Pernia also hit trouble in the opening stages of the race following contact with Lynk & Co driver Fabian Yannantuoni, dropping the Honda driver down to tenth place.

Maria Nienkötter made a mistake in the early part of the race and spun off track and nearly ended the race for the leaders as she recklessly rejoined the track right in front of the pack. But the top drivers fortunately managed to avoid the Toyota driver.

Peugeot driver Pedro Cardoso fought Reis hard for fifth place with nine minutes left of the race, with Reis being nudged off onto the grass and hit Cardoso as he rejoined the track. This enabled Yannantuoni to pass them both for fifth while Cardoso was sixth and Reis dropped to eighth.

Yannantuoni soon caught Peugeot driver Luis Ramírez in the fight for third place and launched his Lynk & Co on the inside heading into Turn 1 with six minutes left of the race.

But just as Yannantuoni went past, the two made contact at the exit of Turn 1, resulting in a broken suspension and spin off track into retirement for Yannantuoni.

Ramírez was able to continue but lost one place as Cardoso snuck past into third place. The incident saw the safety car heading onto the track.

The race resumed with just two laps left and Rosso made the move for the lead as the field started the last lap heading into Turn 1 on Paladini Racing team-mate Balerini. Cardoso took advantage of the move and claimed second place a corner later from Balerini.

This kicked of a chaotic battle for the final podium place, with Ramírez coming off worst as the Peugeot driver was hit from behind and stopped on track to retire just a couple of corners from the chequered flag.

The tough fight for third continued heading into the final couple of corners between Honda driver Leonel Pernia and Balerini, with Leonel Pernia snatching the final podium position.

Balerini managed to hang onto fourth place, but only just as drivers in positions four to nine were covered by just eight tenths of a second over the finishing line. Balerini was later handed a five-second penalty for a safety car restart infringement, dropping him from fourth to ninth.

Fabricio Pezzini finished fourth ahead of Reis, Genaro Rasetto, Enzo Gianfratti, Adrian Chiriano and Balerini, while Tiago Pernia was a distant tenth.

Rosso won the race 1.4 seconcs ahead of Cardoso while Pernia was six seconds behind in third.

Pernia heads the standings on 148 points, with Cardoso second on 134 and Rosso third on 93 points.

The next TCR South America race takes place at Villicum on May 9-11.