Oriola defends his lead in TCR South America at Alta Gracia

The penultimate event of TCR South America takes place this weekend at Alta Gracia's Autódromo Oscar Cabalén, in the Argentine province of Córdoba.
The battle for the first ever title in the South American series got closer after the previous event at Buenos Aires. 
Pepe Oriola (W2 Racing, Honda Civic Type R) has retained the leadership in the standings, but his advantage over Rodrigo Baptista (Cobra Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS) shrank to eight points only, while Oriola's teammate Raphael Reis - who won the Buenos Aires endurance race - closed the gap to 16 points from the Spaniard.
With 110 points still on offer in the last two events, José Manuel Sapag (Squadra Martino, Honda Civic Type R) remains in contention, as he lies in fourth position, 85 points behind the leader.
Uruguay’s Santiago Urrutia returns to drive one of PMO Motorsport’s Lynk & Co 03 cars after making a maiden appearance in the series on his home country at Rivera, where he set pole position and won the first race. The second Lynk & Co will be driven by Argentina’s Fabricio Pezzini, while the team will also run for the first time a Peugeot 308 in the hands of Ernesto Bessone.
Another returnee is Valdeno Brito who had previously raced a Honda Civic in Curitiba’s endurance race; the Brazilian will drive on of the Alfa Romeo Giulietta cars entered by PropCar Racing alongside Javier Manta. Matías Cravero who drove an Alfa in Buenos Aires has switched to a Squadra Martino Honda Civic for this event.
Qualifying and both races will be streamed live at www.tcr-series.com; the qualifying Saturday at 15:30 local time (19:30 CET) and the races Sunday at 08:00 and 10:00 local times (12:00 and 14:00 CET).

Pictures: TCR South America/Braian Alarcón & Fabián Caló