Photo: TCR South America

Leonel Pernía claims strong pole position at San Juan Villicum

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Honda driver Leonel Pernía dominated the TCR South America qualifying session at San Juan Villicum to claim his second pole position of the year with a margin of close to six tenths of a second.

Leonel Pernía set the first reference lap time in the Q2 session, followed by his Honda YPF Racing team-mate Nelson Piquet Jr. and Cupra driver Raphael Reis in third.

Piquet Jr. was setting purple sectors around the track on his final attempt, but went too deep under braking at the last corner, leaving team-mate Leonel Pernía on the top spot with an improved lap time of 1:41.921.

Reis finished third, 0.690 seconds from pole, with Tiago Pernia in fourth.

Fabian Yannantuoni qualified in fifth place behind the wheel of his Paladini Racing-prepared Lynk & Co, 0.848 seconds off the pace, with Pedro Cardoso behind in sixth, one second from pole sitter Pernía.

Luis Ramírez (Peugeot) was seventh, followed by Mariano Pernía (Honda), Juan Angel Rosso (Lynk & Co) and Fabricio Pezzini (Cupra) who completed the top ten, 1.5 seconds from pole.

“I want to thank the team, we have a great car and I learn a lot every time we go out on the track with it to try to improve and stay ahead,” Leonel Pernía said after the qualifying session.

The TCR South America field returns to the track on Sunday morning for Race 1 at 09:00 local time (14:00 CEST).