Néstor Girolami completes Posadas double as Leonel Pernía retires
Hyundai driver Néstor Girolami recovered from tenth place on the reversed grid to win Race 2 at Posadas, climbing to the second place in the TCR South America drivers’ standings.
The Lynk & Cos of Fabricio Pezzini and Fabián Yannantuoni took the first two positions at the start from the front row of the grid.
Camilo Trappa (Hyundai) climbed to third place at the start and was mounting the pressure on Yannantuoni at the end of the first lap.
Race 1 winner Girolami recovered six positions from tenth on the reversed grid to climb up to fourth place ahead of fellow Hyundai driver Joaquín Cafaro, with Leonel Pernía (Honda) in sixth position.
Girolami charged ahead, overtaking Trappa for third place before the end of the second lap and started to chase Yannantuoni in second place.
Tiago Pernía (Honda) overtook his father Leonel for sixth position on lap three.
Gabryel Romano (Hyundai) retired on lap four, as Girolami went past Yannantuoni for second place on the same lap.
Cafaro overtook Trappa for fourth place on lap five, as Girolami managed to snatch the lead from Pezzini.
Further back, Reis and Leonel Pernía went side-by-side fighting for seventh place, with the Brazilian Cupra driver managing to stay ahead. Enzo Gianfratti took advantage of the scruff to overtake Leonel Pernía.
Pezzini continued to drop positions down to fourth position after being overtaken by Yannantuoni and the Cafaro on lap six.
Trappa had issues with a broken front splitter, losing fifth position to Tiago Pernía and Reis.
Leonel Pernía slowed down at the end of the tenth lap with tyre trouble, heading into the pits and dropped down the order.
Tiago Pernía overtook Pezzini for fourth position on lap 17, with Reis soon following suit.
But Reis suffered a mechanical failure and went off track on the following lap, with the safety car coming into action with three laps to go.
The race went green for one final racing lap, with Girolami staying ahead of Yannantuoni and Cafaro.
Girolami claimed his second victory of the weekend, completing a dominating performance at Posadas. Yannantuoni and Cafaro completed the podium.
Tiago Pernía was fourth ahead of Trappa and Pezzini. Gianfratti crossed the line in seventh place, ahead of Carlos Okulovich (Honda).
“It has been an impressive weekend, we have worked a lot on the car to,” Girolami said efter the race. “We also took advantage that our rivals had a lot of weight, which is important in this race, with all the ups and downs.
“We scored some important points, so it has been a good weekend.”
Leonel Pernía continues leading the championship with 436 points, 59 ahead of Girolami and 66 over Reis.
The next round of the championship takes place on the 6-8th of November at Rosario in Argentina.
