Rossi sails into points lead as Girolami hit with engine problem

Toyota Team Argentina’s Matías Rossi launched into the lead of the Argentinian Super TC 2000 Championship after victory at San Juan, whilst Peugeot Lo Jack Team’s Néstor Girolami was left crestfallen after another mechanical failure robbed the 23-year-old of another potential victory.

Although Equipo Petronas Fiat driver José María López had set the fastest time in qualifying yesterday, Matías Rossi and Néstor Girolami elevated themselves to the front row after success in the morning’s Super 8 qualifying shootout races.

Rossi and Girolami entertained in their one lap heat, with Rossi coming out on top ahead of the young Peugeot driver, and at the start of the main race the two looked set to repeat their performance for a full length race, with Girolami able to pass Rossi’s Toyota Corolla on the opening lap, but with the 2011 champion staying close behind for the first third of the race, pulling away from López’s Fiat in third.

Unfortunuately for Girolami the fight was cut short as his Peugeot lost power for the second consecutive race as he was leading, pulling into the pits with the team’s engineers scrambling to work on the Radical V8 engine.

Rossi was now the race leader and maintained a two second gap to the Fiat of José María López for the rest of the race, with team-mate Bernardo Llaver in third.

The next best fight was for fourth, with Equipo Chevrolet YPF driver Agustín Canapino fighting to hold off the third-highest placed Toyota of Mariano Werner.

Meanwhile, Equipo Petrobras Honda’s Christian Ledesma was making progress, working his way forward through the field and up to sixth from his ninth position on the grid.

On lap 27 Werner made a run for fourth on Canapino’s Chevrolet Cruze, but the 23-year-old moved to block the Toyota which allowed an opportunistic move by Ledesma down the right side and past the pair of them. Werner was also able to get ahead of Canapino’s Chevrolet by passing him on the left as Ledesma made his move. Canapino’s Chevrolet then retired from the race less than a lap later in the pits.

Finishing in sixth place was Leonel Pernía, the best placed of the four Renault Lo Jack Team drivers ahead of Franco Vivian, who was the best placed Chevrolet after Canapino’s retirement.

Ricardo Risatti finished in eighth place in his Honda Civic ahead of Guillermo Ortelli’s Renault and with Mariano Altuna ending up as the best of the Peugeots, in what will be a disappointing result for the team after the early promise shown by Néstor Girolami in the race.

Rossi’s victory moves him into the lead of the drivers’ standings on 70 points, whilst José María López now moves up to second in the standings on 48 points, 22 points behind the Toyota driver, with Rossi’s team-mate Mariano Werner on 44. The points leader heading into the weekend, Fiat’s Facundo Ardusso, remains on 43 points and drops to fourth in the standings after a disastrous weekend, with his car damaged in qualifying and unable to take part in the race.

The next round of the Championship takes place at La Pampa in three weeks’ time on June 2nd.