Leonel Pernia withstands pressure from Pedro Cardoso to victory

Leonel Pernia won the first TCR South America race of the weekend at the Ciudad de Oberá in Misiones, Argentina, from pole position, but had to withstand hard pressure from reigning champion Pedro Cardoso during the final couple of laps.

Leonel Pernia made a strong start as the lights went out, with Honda YPF Racing team-mate Nelson Piquet Jr right behind while their third team-mate Tiago Pernia got a slow getaway from third on the grid and dropped to fifth.

Tiago Pernia was eventually able to fight back into fourth place past Cupra driver Raphael Reis.

The race was mainly static after that, but the fight for the top three positions fired up as the race neared its end.

Peugeot 308TCR driver Cardoso reeled in Piquet Jr and snatched seconds place from the Honda driver with four minutes left of the race.

Cardoso then quickly got onto the rear bumper of Leonel Pernia, waiting for a mistake during the last couple of laps.

But Leonel Pernia managed to withstand pressure to win the race by just three tenths of a second.

Piquet Jr was just over a second behind in third while Tiago Pernia was a distant fourth, close to five seconds from his team-mate.

Reis crossed the line in fifth place, just two tenths of a second ahead of Lynk & Co Paladini Racing driver Fabian Yannantuoni who rounded off the top six.

The second race of the weekend starts at 12:00 local time/17:00 CEST.