The preliminary heat battles for Turismo Carretera are done, and Mauricio Lambiris set the tone by converting his pole position into a commanding victory in the fastest heat aboard his Ford Mustang with a time of 08:02.356.
When the lights went out for the first heat, Lambiris immediately slammed the door on Marco Dianda to control the front. Further back, Jonatan Castellano pulled off a brilliant outside move to snatch third from Juan Martín Trucco, while a multi-car chain reaction shunt at the rear triggered an exclusion for Matías Canapino. Out front, the Uruguayan driver simply checked out, dropping the hammer with a string of fastest laps to leave Dianda behind. The real scrap was for fourth, where Valentín Aguirre hammered away at Trucco for laps without finding a way through. Lambiris ultimately took the win from Dianda, Castellano, Trucco, and Aguirre.
Over in the second heat, Matías Rossi and Julián Santero put on an absolute masterclass in hard racing. The pair refused to cede a single centimeter, and Rossi expertly fended off the pressure to defend his position across the line in 08:02.925. Championship leader Facundo Chapur managed to dive past Mariano Werner for sixth on the opening lap, but his race unraveled in a desperate lunge at Hernán Palazzo through the twisty section that ended in a spin and ruined his charge. Rossi crossed first, followed by the new leader Julián Santero, Facundo Ardusso, Marcos Landa, and Palazzo.
The third and slowest heat belonged entirely to the Maquin Parts stable, which locked out the front of the grid with its three Mercedes Benz CLE 53 AMG machines driven by Otto Fritzler, Diego Azar, and José Manuel Urcera. Fritzler and Azar maintained a respectful gap at the head of the field, but Germán Todino crashed the Mercedes party by barging past Urcera to steal a spot. From there, the heat settled into a straightforward affair with Fritzler cruising home in 08:04.081, ahead of Azar, Todino, Urcera, and Canapino, who tried everything to wrestle a position back from Manu without success.
Following the exact sequence of the heats, the first proved to be the quickest and the third the slowest. All eyes now turn to the Gran Premio AFA final at the Autódromo Juan Manuel Fangio in Rosario, scheduled to kick off at 14:00 hours with official coverage broadcast on El Nueve and Motor Play.
