Leonel Pernía claims season opener pole position at Curvelo
Honda Racing YPF driver Leonel Pernía claimed the first pole position of the 2026 TCR South America season during the Curvelo premiere in Brazil.
Honda team-mates Tiago and Leonel Pernía led in the initial stages of the Q1, but it would be Cupra driver Raphael Reis and Hyundai’s Néstor Girolami who would steal the top spots in the first part of the qualifying.
It was a difficult Q1 session for 2024 champion Pedro Cardoso, who has moved to Cupra team G Racing Motorsport this year, qualifying in 14th place on the grid for both races.
Leonel Pernía was the first driver to establish a reference lap time in Q2, but with five minutes to go Girolami could become the first driver to break the 1:23 barrier to rise to the top, followed by Reis.
Tiago Pernía improved in the closing stages of the session, but with less than a minute left on the clock, Leonel Pernía stole the top spot with a lap time of 1:22.787.
Girolami followed closely behind in second place, 0.147 seconds slower.
Reis finished third, a further 36-thousandths of a second behind, with Tiago Pernía in fourth.
Nélson Piquet Jr qualified in fifth position behind the wheel of his Honda, three-tenths off the pace, followed by Peugeot newcomer Joaquín Cafaro, half-a-second off the pace.
Lynk & Co 03 TCR driver Juan Angel Rosso was seventh, six-tenths behind the pole position, followed by Celso Neto (Cupra), Camilo Trappa (Hyundai) and Gabriel Moura (Audi) completing the top ten.
“I’m very happy and grateful to Honda Racing for their support,” Pernía said after the session.
“The qualifying result was an effort from everyone at the team and here with the arrival of Girolami and Hyundai we push each other, but together we managed to achieve the target of scoring the pole position.”
The TCR South America field returns to the track on Sunday at 09:10 local time for Race 1 (13:10 CET).
