Franetovich wins a thrilling fight with Pflucker and Oriola
At Río Cuarto, Ever Franetovich celebrated his maiden appearance in TCR South America with a spectacular win that saw him putting in a great defensive drive to keep a charging Pepe Oriola at bay for the second part of the race. Eventually Oriola lost second to Rodrigo Pflucker but regained the lead in the standings on equal points with Rodrigo Baptista.
Franetovich had won pole position Saturday afternoon on a track that was drying after a shower. In the session’s dying moment, Franetovich clocked the fastest lap of 1:19.521 at the wheel of his PMO Motorsport Lynk & Co 03, while Pflucker (1:19.152) qualified his Hyundai i30 N in second, demoting Franetovich’s teammate Ernesto Bessone (1:19.432) to third. The title contenders Baptista and Oriola started from P6 and P7.
Franetovich got away clearly at the start, while behind him Bessone, Pflucker, José Manuel Sapag and Facundo Marques were fighting for P2. Bessone went wide on the grass at Turn 2 and rejoined in 10thposition, while Oriola benefited from the situation and moved up to third. Franetovich built a 3.5-second lead over Pflucker, while Sapag, Raphael Reis, Marques and Rodrigo Baptista were in a close battle for P4.
As a light rain began to fall, Pflucker and Oriola closed in on Franetovich whose advantage went down to less than one second. In lap 10, Oriola overtook Pflucker and began chasing Franetovich in every corner. Behind the three leaders, Sapag passed Reis for P4, and Marques did the same with Baptista for P6, while Bessone recovered to P7.
For the last five laps, Franetovich was able to close all the gaps, preventing Oriola from passing and went on to take his maiden win in the championship, the first for an Argentine driver in TCR South America; behind him, Pflucker pipped Oriola at the last turn to finish second.
Race 2 will start at 12:55 local time (16:55 CET); with the ten fastest qualifiers reversed on the grid, Roy Block’s Alfa Romeo will be on pole with Adalberto Baptista’s Audi alongside. Live streaming at www.tcr-series.com.
Río Cuarto – Race 1
1. Ever Franetovich (PMO Motorsport, Lynk & Co 03), 17 laps
2. Rodrigo Pflucker (Perú Racing Team, Hyundai i30 N), 0.899
3. Pepe Oriola (W2 Racing, Honda Civic Type R FK7), 1.124
4. José Manuel Sapag (Squadra Martino, Honda Civic Type R FK7), 2.013
5. Rafael Reis (W2 Racing, Honda Civic Type R FK7), 2.842
Championship points
1. P. Oriola 162 pts; 2. R. Baptista 162; 3. R. Reis 118
Picture: TCR South America/Renzo Carletti
