Photo: TCR South America

Pedro Cardoso wins Race 1 and leads championship ahead of title decider

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PMO Racing’s Pedro Cardoso (Peugeot) claimed a decisive win in Race 1 of the 2024 TCR South America season finale at Rosario and heads the standings ahead of the very last race of the year.

Cardoso took the lead from the pole position at the start, followed by Toyota Team Argentina’s Matías Rossi his and team-mate Leonel Pernía. Rodrigo Baptista (Honda) went wide at Turn 2 and fell down the order.

The safety car was called into action before the end of the first lap as Paladino Racing’s Fabián Yannantuoni (Toyota) went off and was stranded with a broken right rear suspension after contact with PMO Racing’s Damián Fineschi (Peugeot). The incident would later be ruled as a racing incident.

The race went green again on lap three, with Cardoso and Rossi charging ahead in the lead and opened a small gap to Pernía.

Further back, Paladini Racing’s Juan Ángel Rosso (Toyota) defended fourth place from W2 Pro GP driver Raphael Reis (Cupra), who needed to overtake the Argentinian and make contact with the leading group in order to keep his championship options open.

Fineschi had another incident on lap six as a recovering Baptista came side-by-side with him and the two made contact, albeit with positions remaining unchanged.

W2 Pro GP’s Fabrizio Pezzini (Cupra) retired from the race with a broken rear suspension on lap eight, with the Argentinian driver parking the car away from the track, so no safety car was needed.

Reis overtook Rosso on lap eleven to finish in fourth ahead of the Toyota driver. Casella came under fire from Fineschi on the last lap, with the Peugeot driver overtaking for sixth place as Casella struggled with tyres.

Cardoso took his third win of the season at the chequered flag, with Rossi and Pernía completing the podium.

Reis was fourth ahead of Rosso and Fineschi, with Casella protected by his team-mates to finish in seventh place ahead of Matías Cravero and Baptista. W2 Pro GP’s Galid Osman (Cupra) completed the top ten.

Cardoso leads the championship with 442 points, 19 ahead of Casella, with both Rosso and Reis having lost their title hopes.

“We completed our targets, it was a very good race,” said Cardoso after the race. “It wasn’t easy as Matías (Rossi) had a very strong pace during the first half. Half of the job is done, so sow we will do the maths to get the title.”

Race 2, the last of the season, is scheduled for Sunday afternoon at 12:25 local time, 16:25 CET.