The Super TC2000 will start today, with practices, qualifying, and a qualifying race, the path for the third date of its calendar, which will take place on Sunday at the “Ciudad de General San Martìn” racetrack in Mendoza.
The activity will begin at 9:45 am with two practice sessions. At 3 pm, the qualifying will start to determine the order of the qualifying race, which will start at 4:28 pm, with a demanding 10 laps on the 4.167-meter long track or a maximum of 25 minutes.
As usual, the support categories Fiat Competizione and F2.0 will accompany the Super TC2000, training, qualifying, and racing tomorrow the first competition of the weekend. The lap record on the Mendoza track is held by the Cordoban José María “Pechito” López (Ford Focus), with a time of 1m27s670 at 171.110 kph, achieved on September 9, 2012.
The last winner in Mendoza was Fabián Yannantuoni (Peugeot 408) from Santa Fe, on May 7, 2017.
After two races in the championship, the leader of the standings is Facundo Ardusso (Fluence) from Santa Fe, with 63 points; followed by Leonel Pernía (Fluence) from Tandil, with 40; and Agustín Canapino (Cruze) from Arrecifes, with 37. Then, Mariano Werner (408) from Entre Ríos, with 34 units; Facundo Chapur (Citroen C4) and Néstor Girolami (408) from Córdoba, with 32 and 25 respectively; and Julián Santero (Toyota) from Mendoza, with 22. The top ten positions are completed by Yannantuoni (408) with 22 points; Matìas Rossi (Toyota) from Buenos Aires, with 17; and Emiliano Spataro (Fluence) from Lanús, with 14.
TANAK DOMINATED IN CALAMUCHITA AND LEADS THE RALLY TABLE
Estonian Ott Tanak drove his Toyota Yaris WRC with great forcefulness and finished yesterday at the top of the 38th Rally World Argentina 2018, after completing the first stage of the competition, mostly running on roads in the Calamuchita Valley in Córdoba, and that had the retirement of the Finnish Jari-Matti Latvala.
The Estonian driver won five of the seven stages disputed on the day and thus, with an accumulated time of 1 hour 30 minutes 38 seconds 6/10, took a 22.7/10 difference with his closest pursuer, the British Krees Meeke, who is in second place with his Citroën C3.
Very close, with 28.6/10, third place is occupied by the Belgian Thierry Neuville (Hyundai i20), who won last year on Cordoban soil. Further back appear the Spaniard Dani Sordo with his Hyundai i20 at 29.5/10, and fifth is the multiple champion Sebastián Ogier, the Frenchman who with his Ford Fiesta WRC will seek to win the Argentine competition for the first time this year.
Sixth is the Irishman Craig Breen (Citroën), followed by the Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen (Hyundai), the Finn Esapekka Lappi (Toyota), the Briton Elfyn Evans (Ford), and the Finn Timo Suninen (Ford), who completes the top ten positions.
The premature retirement of Latvala, who won in our country in 2014, took one of the candidates for victory out of the race. The Finn hit his Toyota Yaris hard in the third stage (Amboy-Yacanto) and broke the suspension, although he was able to finish that stage, problems also arose in the engine, which will not even allow him to re-enter the race tomorrow.