Rodrigo Baptista moves into the series lead as Oriola retires

Following his win in Race 1 at the Autódromo Víctor Borrat Fabini in El Pinar, Rodrigo Baptista encored that result in Race 2 to take victory over Pablo Otero’s Lynk & Co 03. The TCR South America series leader Pepe Oriola retired with a mechanical failure and so the Spaniard dropped to second in the standings behind Baptista. 
When the lights went out, Otero sprinted from pole on the reversed grid to lead, while a poor start from Adalberto Baptsita saw him drop several positions after starting from P2. Oriola made a great start and moved into second place behind Otero.
After qualifying on pole for Race 1, Rodrigo Baptista started Race 2 from P10 but like Oriola was making his way through the field and was fifth by the end of Lap 2. On the next lap, he passed José Manuel Sapag’s Honda for P4 while Oriola dived up the inside of Otero to take the lead. On the next lap, Baptista and Sapag passed Cyro Fontes in the other Lynk & Co car to move up to P3 and P4 respectively. Baptista then moved up to second in Lap 5 when he overtook Otero, but Oriola then slowed with a broken front suspension and retired, which elevated Baptista into the lead.
Baptista then began to pull away, while there were a string of battles going on behind the Audi. Rodrigo Pflucker’s Hyundai i30 N passed the Lynk & Co of Fontes for P4 on Lap 6 with Raphael Reis doing the same to move into P5. Pflucker then passed Sapag for P3 on Lap 9 but on the next lap there appeared to be contact between Fontes and the Alfa Romeo of Diego Martínez which ended with the Lynk & Co hitting the barriers heavily and the safety car being called into action.
Racing resumed on Lap 13 but there were only a few changes of positions during the final third of the race. Reis passed Martínez for P5 on Lap 16 while on the next lap Pflucker appeared to miss his braking point and ran wide, allowing Sapag to retake P3. That’s how the race finished, with Rodrigo Baptista taking the win by almost ten seconds from Otero and Sapag completing the podium. 
As a result of his two victories and Oriola’s retirement, Baptista has now moved into the lead of the standings and has an 8-point advantage over Oriola. Reis is a further 39 points behind in third place.

El Pinar – Race 2 
1. Rodrigo Baptista (Cobra Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 21 laps
2. Pablo Otero (PMO Motorsport, Lynk & Co 03), 9.447
3. José Manuel Sapag (Squadra Martino, Honda Civic Type R FK7), 9.891
4. Rodrigo Pflucker (Peru Racing Team, Hyundai i30 N), 17.187
5. Rafael Reis (W2 Racing, Honda Civic Type R FK7), 22.144

Championship points
1. Baptista 154; 2. P. Oriola 146; 3. R. Reis 107

Picture: TCR South America/Viktor Kudlik