Nelson Piquet Jr. took pole position for the second round of the 2026 TCR South America and TCR Brasil season this Saturday (28), in Cascavel (PR). This is the second pole for the Honda team, which in the previous round, in Minas Gerais, secured the achievement with Leonel Pernía.
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The session at the Zilmar Beux Autodrome was released and all cars went out for the first laps with the intention of warming up the tires and gaining rhythm. Néstor Girolami opened the times with 1min04s877, being surpassed by Nelson Piquet Jr. by 0s009.
In the final ten minutes of the session, the drivers began their attempts for the next phase of qualifying. Girolami and Piquet Jr, satisfied with their times, did not return to the track.
The fight focused on the middle of the table. TCR South America leader, Juan Angel Rosso was on the cut-off line with 1min05s255. Meanwhile, Tiago Pernía managed to beat Girolami’s time and took the lead in the phase with 1min04s578. Gabriel Moura. Joaquín Cafaro and Pedro Cardoso placed themselves ahead of Piquet. Then, Leonel Pernía took the lead with 1min04s367.
Qualified: Leonel Pernía, Tiago Pernía, Gabriel Moura, Joaquín Cafaro, Pedro Cardoso, Nelson Piquet Jr, Néstor Girolami, Raphael Reis, Enzo Gianfratti, Diego Ciantini, Erick Schotten and Camilo Trappa.
Eliminated: Juan Manuel Casella, Juan Ángel Rosso, Bruno Massa, Fabian Yannantuoni, Fabricio Pezzini, Adrian Chiriano, Nicolas Fuca, Guilherme Reischl, Enzo Maglione and Gabryel Romano.
The cars returned to the track and Tiago Pernía led the first minutes of the second part of qualifying with 1min04s520, just 0s013 ahead of Nelson Piquet Jr.
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Halfway through the session, some drivers returned to the pits to perform tire rotation.
In the final minutes, tension increased on the track. Piquet took the lead with 1min04s242, while Joaquín Cafaro placed himself as the best in the Junior Cup, recording 1min04s723 and finishing sixth in the overall standings.
Clock at zero, and Nelson Piquet Jr. secured pole position for the second round of the year, for both TCR South America and TCR Brasil. Tiago Pernía will start second, while Leonel Pernía finished third.
Raphael Reis secured fourth position, followed by Pedro Cardoso and Joaquín Cafaro. Néstor Girolami finished in seventh place, while Erick Schotten was eighth. Camilo Trappa was ninth and Enzo Gianfratti secured tenth place and will start at the front in Race 2. Diego Ciantini and Gabriel Moura closed the top-12.
TCR holds Race 1 later this Saturday, at 15h30, with transmission on the category’s official YouTube channels and also on TV Gazeta.
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