José Manuel Urcera clinches pole in Toay

Fiat Petronas driver José Manuel Urcera dominated qualifying at the fast Toay circuit in La Pampa, claiming pole position, followed by Renault Sport’s pair of Facundo Ardusso and Leonel Pernía, while championship leader Agustín Canapino was third in his brand new Chevrolet Cruze.

Things didn’t start too well in Q1 for Peugeot’s Damian Fineschi, whose engine couldn’t be started due to a fly-by-wire problem, and only just made it out into the session in time. Leonel Pernía had trouble with the team struggling to close the bonnet on his Renault Fluence, but was able to manage to set a time.

The rest of Group A, featuring the title contenders, came out on track to start their runs. Bernardo Llaver’s Fiat set the first benchmark with 1:14.395, soon followed by his team-mate José Manuel Urcera, and title challenger Facundo Ardusso (Renault Sport), who move up to third on his last attempt.

The Fiat trio seemed to be the cars to beat after the strong performance in practice, with the first session topped by Urcera, while Toyota’s Esteban Guerrieri set the fastest time in second practice.

The second group featured most of the privateer entries looking for a spot among the top 20 and to make it into Q2. In the first minutes, it was Bruno Etman, in the M&M Group Fiat Linea, who grabbed eighth, becoming the best placed of this group.

Q2 started with the last ten who were promoted from Q1, featuring Norberto Fontana and championship leader Agustín Canapino, both taking out the new Chevrolet Cruze for the first time. The two drivers decided to slipstream each other on the long straights of Toay circuit, as did Renault’s Ignacio Julián and Emiliano Spataro. The tactic worked well for Canapino, who set the fastest time of 1:14.790.

Afterwards, the top ten drivers from Q1 went out to set their laps. Urcera and Llaver put their Fiats into second and third respectively on their very first attempt, already leaving Spataro out of Q3. Etman was the only one from this group who didn’t make it into the top ten which would be promoted to Q3 and battle for pole.

The Q3 group therefore included Canapino, Urcera, Llaver, Pernía, Rossi, Werner, Ardusso, Guerrieri, Fineschi and Merlo.

Urcera was first to set a target lap, being pulled along the straights by his team-mate Llaver, followed by Pernía’s Renault and Canapino’s Chevrolet, with Rossi setting the fourth fastest time in his Toyota.

Ardusso benefitted from a slipstream from team-mate Pernía to qualify in second in his Renault Fluence, with Pernía third and championship leader Agustín Canapino fourth, but nobody had the pace to match Urcera, who clinched pole position. Behind them was the Fiat of Bernardo Llaver, Toyota’s Matías Rossi, Peugeot’s Mariano Werner, Renault’s Facundo Ardusso, with Esteban Guerrieri, Damian Fineschi and Javier Merlo rounding out the top ten.

“It’s my second pole position of the season, the team did great work, my car was fantastic,” said Urcera. “In Santa Fe we had a strong potential but we couldn’t prove that, today we did. I’m very thankful to ‘Bernie’ (Llaver), he used his best tyres to carry me on slipstreaming, that was worth a couple of tenths. I hope tomorrow will be a great day.”

Facundo Ardusso qualified in second and is in good place to reduce the gap to championship leader Agustín Canapino on Sunday.

“We dropped a bit of performance, but less than the others, so we’re in good shape,” said Ardusso. “We can battle for a podium. Pernía helped me a lot, slipstream is crucial. We were not looking so good for flying-laps, but our pace is great. I’ll have to attack in the Heat race in order to gain places,” he added.

Since Urcera is free of grid-penalty (the handicap gives up to 16-places after the qualifying session to re-arrange the heat races grid), he will effectively start the first heat on pole, followed by Guerrieri. The second heat will have Llaver on pole, joined by Merlo on the first row.