Rafael Reis is the first pole sitter ever in TCR South America

Raphael Reis will start the first-ever TCR South America race from pole position after the Brazilian driver set the fastest time in Qualifying at Interlagos. The first three places on the grid for Race 1 will be occupied by Honda Civic cars, with Pepe Oriola alongside his W2 Racing teammate Reis on the front row and the Squadra Martino car of José Manuel Sapag starting from P3 with the Cobra Racing Audi RS 3 LMS of Rodrigo Baptista in P4.
It was Sapag’s teammate Ayrton Chorne who was the first driver to record a competitive lap with a time of 1:44.371, although that was soon beaten by the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce of Paul Holton (1:42.865) and Sapag (1:43.250) with Chorne improving with a 1:43.556. Holton then also improved (1:42.469) while Oriola had a relatively cautious start to the session with a lap of 1:43.739 which was only fifth fastest at that point.
With just over twenty-five minutes remaining, Reis recorded a 1:43.019 to go second quickest, but then improved on his next lap to go fastest with a 1:42.443. Within a few minutes, he’d been ousted from the position by Rodrigo Baptista who recorded a 1:42.334 but it was soon Oriola’s turn to top the timesheet when he first set a 1:42.259 and then improved with a 1:42.077 on his next lap. Reis himself improved his best time with a 1:42.292 but it wasn’t enough to beat the Spaniard at that point.
With less than ten minutes to go, Sapag went second quickest with a lap of 1:42.096, but the front row of the grid for Race 1 wouldn’t be decided until the last few minutes of the session. Oriola became the first driver to beat the 1:42 barrier when he set a lap of 1:41.747 with around three minutes of the session remaining, but Reis pipped him around a minute later when he set a 1:41.392 – a time which wouldn’t be beaten. 
Reis therefore made a little piece of TCR history by claiming the first fastest time in a TCR South America Qualifying session, beating Oriola to claim pole position by 0.355 second. In all, ten cars took part in the session with Geciel Andrade a last-minute replacement for Marcio Basso in one of the MC Tubarão team’s Audi RS 3 LMS cars.
Live streaming of both races tomorrow at www.tcr-series.com; Race 1, at 08:40 and Race 2 at 09:50 local times (13:40 and 14:50 CEST).

Interlagos – Qualifying 
1:41.392 Rafael Reis (W2 Racing, Honda Civic Type R FK7)
1:41.747 Pepe Oriola (W2 Racing, Honda Civic Type R FK7)
1:42.096 José Manuel Sapag (Squadra Martino, Honda Civic Type R FK7)
1:42.315 Rodrigo Baptista (Cobra Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS)
1:42.469 Paul Holton (PropCar Racing Team, Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce)   

Championship points
1. G Reis 5 pts; 2. P. Oriola 4; 3. JM. Sapag 3 

Picture: TCR South America