Here's the thing, Turismo Carretera is back on track, and Diego Azar wasted zero time making his presence known at the Autódromo Juan Manuel Fangio in Rosario. Piloting the Mercedes Benz prepared by the Maquin Parts team, Azar clocked a sharp 1:35.189 to top the charts in the opening practice session for the third round of the Copa de Oro Río Uruguay Seguros.
Right behind him came Mauricio Lambiris, putting the Laboritto Jrs Ford Mustang just 77 milésimas adrift. Matías Rossi rounded out the top three in the Pradecon Racing Toyota Camry, sitting 111 milésimas off the benchmark.
Further down the order, Luis José “Josito” Di Palma took fourth, already dropping back by 4 décimas. Marco Dianda slotted into fifth over half a second off the pace, followed by Julián Santero in sixth and Otto Fritzler in seventh. José Manuel Urcera, Ricardo “Caito” Risatti, and Jorge Barrio completed the top ten in that order.
Meanwhile, championship leader Facundo Chapur had a quieter start to the weekend, ending up 12th at just under a second back from Azar's leading time.
The garage has no time to breathe, however. The next practice session is scheduled for 12:00 hours, split into two groups of 20 minutes each. Once those runs are done, the intense business of qualifying gets underway at 15:55 hours, broken down into four quarters of 8 minutes apiece.
