Photo: TCR South America

Tiago Pernía claims close debut pole position at Rosario

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Honda YPF Racing driver Tiago Pernía scored a close first pole postiion at Rosario, host of the first round of the 2025 TCR South America season.

Pedro Cardoso of PMO Racing was the first pace setter in the session, but would be soon beaten by Honda YPF Racing’s Nelson Piquet Jr. (Honda). His team-mate Leonel Pernía rose to the top with ten minutes to go in the Q1.

Tiago Pernía, Leonel’s son, sat in fourth place, followed by W2 Pro GP’s Raphael Reis (Cupra). Paladini Racing’s Santino Balerini (Toyota) climbed up to sixth place, with his team-mate Fabián Yannantuoni as the fastest Lynk & Co 03 TCR driver right behind.

Reis pulled a strong effort to rise up to second place at the end of Q1, just five-thousandths behind Leonel Pernía.

Mariano Pernía of Honda YPF Racing was eighth, followed by Fabrizio Pezzini with the second Cupra from W2 Pro GP and Juan Ángel Rosso, driving the second Lynk & Co of Paladini Racing.

Peugeot driver Luis Ramírez and Genaro Rasetto completed the list of drivers going through Q2.

Cardoso went fastest after the first lap in the Q2, followed by Leonel Pernía and Reis. Piquet left the pits after the rest of the field had completed their first flying lap, rising to first place on his first attempt.

But it would be Tiago Pernía who, in his last flying lap and with the chequered flag already waving, beat Piquet by 0.074 seconds for the pole position of 2025 with a lap time of 1:37.284.

Cardoso was third, ahead of Leonel Pernía and Reis. Yannantuoni qualified in sixth position ahead of his team-mate Rosso, with Pezzini in eighth place. Mariano Pernía and Luis Ramírez completed the top ten.

The TCR South America field returns to action on Sunday for Race 1 at 09:15 local time, 14:15 CEST.