Néstor Girolami clinches maiden pole position at Cuiabá

Hyundai MSA’s Néstor Girolami scored his first-ever TCR South America pole position at Cuiabá in a qualifying impacted by the weather conditions.

Light drizzle and strong winds welcomed the TCR field when it hit the track, providing an added layer of difficulty as night fell over the Brazilian circuit.

Cupra driver Pedro Cardoso hit the barriers on his first flying lap, but was able to continue on his own power and rejoin the session.

Tiago Pernía rose to fifth position after his first attempt, but went straight on on his second lap, avoiding hitting the barriers just in time. Enrique Maglione suffered the same issue a lap later.

Reigning champion Leonel Pernía rose to the top, beating Hyundai’s Néstor Girolami, but soon series newcomer Camilo Trappa would steal the top spot. Cardoso also beat Pernía to settle in second place.

W2 Pro GP’s Raphael Reis improved half-a-second on Trappa’s lap time to settle in first place.

Reis led the Q1 ahead of Trappa and Tiago Pernía, with Cardoso in fourth position. Juan Angel Rosso was fifth, with Cupra driver Eric Schotteo right behind.

Leonel Pernía, Girolami, Nelson Piquet Junior and the second Lynk & Co of Fabián Yannantuoni followed, with Audi driver Gabriel Moura and Cupra driver Bruno Massa completing the pass onto Q2.

The entire field took to the track at the start of the Q2, with Massa having a brief off-road moment, as did Cardoso as the Cupra driver tried to improve on his second flying lap.

Schotten also went off the track and stopped on the grass, with the red flag coming out with just under three minutes left on the clock. The session resumed with just enough time for the drivers to complete one final flying lap.

Girolami prevailed to claim his first pole position of the season with a lap-time of 1:50.089, nine-hundredths ahead of Reis and one-tenth over Piquet Jr.

Tiego and Leonel Pernía came next, with Cardoso in sixth position, ahead of Trappa and Yannatuoni, already eight-tenths behind Girolami. Rosso and Schotten completed the top ten.

“I’m very happy and grateful to the team, as it’s our first pole position in the series,” Girolami said after the session. “We’ve had to improve a lot as we were not competitive in the first races, and I think we still had a bit more.

“Bringing everything together here isn’t easy, but I did a good lap, it was not still my best and I thought I would lose the pole, but we got it in the end,” the Argentinean added.

The TCR South America field returns to the track for a night Race 1 on Friday at 22:13 local time (4:13 am on Saturday CEST).