Oriola opens TCR South America with a double win at Interlagos

Pepe Oriola won both the first two rounds of the brand new TCR South America series at Interlagos, opening up a substantial lead in the points standings in the process. Oriola’s W2 Racing teammate Raphael Reis finished second in Race 1 with Rodrigo Baptista completing the podium places, while Paul Holton and Ayrton Chorne finished second and third behind the Spaniard in Race 2.
Race 1 saw Oriola make a better start than pole-sitter Reis, beating his teammate to Turn 1, and from then on Oriola was never threatened, crossing the line nearly three seconds clear. The first five cars quickly pulled away from the remainder of the pack and, apart from Oriola, spent much of the race running together. José Manuel Sapag made contact with Reis on Lap 2 but then Sapag made a slight mistake at Turn 1 on Lap 4 which took the pressure off Reis. Rodrigo Baptista dived up the inside of Sapag at Turn 1 on Lap 9 to take third place and Paul Holton repeated the feat at the same corner one lap later for P4. 
Thanks to the reversed grid, the pole-sitter for Race 2 was Geciel Andrade, but the Audi pulled aside at the start of the formation lap and although Andrade started the race, he soon pulled into the pits to record his second retirement of the day. The start itself was fairly chaotic, with Guilherme Reischl’s Audi having apparently stalled on the grid and Oriola making another superb start to jump from eighth to second behind Adalberto Baptista going into Turn 1.
The second race was far more lively than the first, with several drivers making contact and a number of passing moves. First, Fabio Casagrande’s Alfa Romeo made contact with Sapag’s Honda on Lap 2 which forced the pair to run wide at Turn 2, with Reis passing Rodrigo Baptista on Lap 4 although the Audi driver quickly re-took the position. On Lap 6, there was heavy contact between the pair, and both were forced to retire. Reis would later be disqualified for causing the incident, which also brought out the safety car for a couple of laps. Casagrande, meanwhile, was forced to pit to change a flat front right.
When racing resumed on Lap 9 Holton immediately attacked Oriola, but the race leader swiftly moved to defend the position and then began to rebuild his lead. On Lap 10, Sapag passed Adalberto Baptista for P4 although the pair ran side by side through the final few corners and Baptista regained the place going into Turn 1. That’s the way things stayed, with Oriola taking his second win of the day from Holton and Ayrton Chorne and Adalberto Baptista hanging onto fourth place ahead of Sapag.
The second race meeting of TCR South America will be a 160km endurance race at Curitiba on 24/25 July.

Interlagos – Race 1 
1. Pepe Oriola (W2 Racing, Honda Civic Type R FK7), 13 laps
2. Rafael Reis (W2 Racing, Honda Civic Type R FK7), 2.948
3. Rodrigo Baptista (Cobra Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 6.074
4. Paul Holton (PropCar Racing Team, Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce), 9.207
5. José Manuel Sapag (Squadra Martino, Honda Civic Type R FK7), 14.646

Interlagos – Race 2 
1. Pepe Oriola (W2 Racing, Honda Civic Type R FK7), 15 laps
2. Paul Holton (PropCar Racing Team, Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce), 2.381
3. Ayrton Chorne (Squadra Martino, Honda Civic Type R FK7), 6.127
4. Adalberto Baptista (Cobra Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 13.857
5. José Manuel Sapag (Squadra Martino, Honda Civic Type R FK7), 20.255

Championship points
1. P. Oriola 54; 2. P. Holton 34; 3. A. Chorne 26 

Picture: TCR South America