Photo: TCR South America

Pedro Cardoso wins incident-packed Race 1 at Interlagos

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PMO Racing driver Pedro Cardoso (Peugeot) won the first race of the TCR South America season finale at Interlagos, a race marred by two safety car interventions and several incidents.

Tiago Pernía (Honda) got ahead at the start, with pole-sitter Nelson Piquet Jr. (Honda) losing several places due to a poor start.

Cupra driver Leonardo Reis attempted an inside move at Turn 1 for the lead, but collided with Pernía and fell behind his team-mate Enzo Gianfratti.

The safety car was called into action as Peugeot driver Genaro Rasetto missed the braking point and went wide and hit the barriers at the start of the second lap.

The woes continued for PMO Racing as Guilherme Reischl (Peugeot) stopped after the Senna-S on lap three due to a technical issue.

The race went green again on lap five with Pernía leading ahead of Gianfratti and Reis, with Cardoso overtaking Piquet for fourth position.

But Cardoso then made contact with Reis in the fight for third, resulting in both going off track and Piquet snatching third place.

Leonel Pernía (Honda), who started from the back of the grid after an engine change penalty, was working his way through the pack quickly and reached fifth place by lap five.

Mariano Pernía (Honda) retired with a blown engine on lap six, with the safety car called into action for the second time.

The race resumed on lap eight as Cardoso and Leonel Pernía made their way past Piquet who dropped down fifth place.

Disaster struck leading driver Tiago Pernía as he suffered a punctured tyre at the beginning of lap eleven, with Gianfratti taking over the lead ahead of Cardoso and Leonel Pernía.

Cardoso attempted the outside at Turn 1 on lap twelve for the lead, but made contact with Gianfratti and had to stay behind. But the Peugeot driver managed to make the move stick a couple of corners later.

Cardoso won as the chequered flag fell ahead of Gianfratti and Leonel Pernía. Piquet overtook Rosso on the final lap for fourth place to secure the 2025 TCR Brazil crown.

Yannantuoni was sixth ahead of Raphael Reis and Adrian Chiriano (Honda). Nienkötter and Massa completed the top ten.

“I have an old car and was still able to fight for my first victory here at Interlagos, so I’m very happy,” said Cardoso after the race.

The TCR South America field returns to the track on Sunday afternoon for Race 2 at 14:00 local time (18:00 CET).