Termas de Rio Hondo, FP1: Dream WTCC debut for home star Guerrieri

Esteban Guerrieri enjoyed the perfect start to his FIA World Touring Car Championship adventure by going a second quicker than anyone else in first practice at WTCC Race of Argentina.

Driving a Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1, Guerrieri posted a best time of 1m43.557s around the Circuito Termas de Río Hondo. That was quicker than the qualifying lap record of 1m43.766s set by his compatriot José María López in 2014.

His closest rival was Yvan Muller, 1.014s slower in his Citroën. “The car is working well,” Guerrieri said. “I’m just learning a lot of things and trying to solve some details. Obviously I took advantage of the new tyres I have for this event.”

There were four different manufacturers in the top four places. Norbert Michelisz was just 0.024s behind Muller in his Honda, while Gabriele Tarquini was fourth for LADA, edging out local hero López by four thousandths of a second.

Rob Huff was sixth in front of James Thompson, John Filippi, Tiago Monteiro and Hugo Valente.

Penalty blow for WTCC young gun Nagy

Dániel Nagy will start the Opening Race at FIA WTCC Race of Argentina on Sunday at the back of the grid after his Zengő Motorsport Honda Civic WTCC’s engine had to be repaired.

Eighteen-year-old Nagy was informed of the decision at Circuito Termas de Río Hondo on Friday evening. Under WTCC rules, whenever an engine is removed from a car and worked on it results in the car’s demotion to the rear of the starting order for the next race the driver contests following the judgement. The Hungarian’s entrant, Zengő Motorsport, denounced its right to appeal.

Nagy is in his first season racing in the WTCC following a belated debut in Portugal last time out.

WTCC debut on hold for Lambiris

Mauricio Lambiris has been thwarted in his bid to make his FIA World Touring Car Championship debut at WTCC Race of Argentina this weekend.

Lambiris, from Uruguay, had secured a last-minute deal to race the Zengő Motorsport Honda Civic WTCC usually driven by Ferenc Ficza, who has been prevented from competing in Argentina after surgery to remove his appendix.

However, Lambiris’ agreement to step up to the WTCC was on the proviso that his car could be readied in time, which has been complicated by Zengő Motorsport cutting back the number of team personnel in Argentina in light of Ficza’s withdrawal and technical problems affecting the squad’s second Civic of Dániel Nagy.

“This is a world championship and the car has to be 100 per cent ready,” Zoltán Zengő said. “With six people only in Argentina the priority is the car of Dániel Nagy and this is what we explained to the manager of Mauricio from the start. After the Vila Real race, the car of Ficza was put in the container, taken here and put in the garage but the time to check the gearbox, the differential, the driveshaft, everything is too short and there has also been the problem with the engine of Nagy’s car, which the team has been working on late last night and early this morning.”

Lambiris tweeted: “I regret to inform you I will not be part of the WTCC. After making a huge effort the team informed me the car is not ready in terms of running. I’m very disappointed for the team.”