Mar del Plata quaifying results

Mar del Plata, December 6th.- The qualifying session for the fourteenth round of the Argentinian Touring Car Championship (TC 2000) took place this afternoon at the Mar del Plata Speedway with Guillermo Ortelli, at the wheel of a works Honda Civic in the pole position with a time of 1m07s620 leaving his teammate Martin Basso at just 0,073. Norberto Fontana with a factory Toyota Corolla set the third best lap at 0,077 of the Honda.

The last winner in this track a year ago, Gabriel Furlan with the privateer Misubishi Lancer marked best fourth 0.090 slower than Ortelli, while Juan Manuel Silva put the third Civic in the top fifth places at 0,098 closing a great journey for the Honda Racing Argentina.

Both works Ford Focus were surely complicated with the 100kg. ballast and the brand-new champion, Gabriel Ponce de Leon scored sixth at 0,0278 as the best of the team.

The length of the circuit, only 2.723 metres, allowed to see a very tight session with 16 cars closed by one second. Once again shows the level of the series.

While the number one since last round is already in hands of Ponce with 121 points, the fight for the sub-championship between Ford men, Walter Hernandez (100 points), Silva (92p) and Fontana (85) will have their last chapter tomorrow from 10.00 and 10.30 with both short races and the main event as always at 12.40 closing the 2003 season of the TC 2000.

<pre> Mar del Plata Qualifying season Saturday, December 6th, 2003

1  4   ORTELLI GUILLERMO        H CIVIC             1:07.620
2  24  BASSO MARTIN             H CIVIC             1:07.693        0.073
3  1   FONTANA NORBERTO         TOYOTA COROLLA      1:07.697        0.077
4  8   FURLAN GABRIEL           MITSUB. LANCER      1:07.710        0.090
5  3   SILVA JUAN MANUEL        H CIVIC             1:07.718        0.098
6  6   PONCE DE LEON GABRIEL    FORD FOCUS          1:07.898        0.278
7  2   MARTINEZ OMAR            TOYOTA COROLLA      1:07.904        0.284
8  5   HERNANDEZ WALTER         FORD FOCUS          1:08.079        0.459
9  9   LEDESMA CHRISTIAN        CH ASTRA.           1:08.084        0.464
10 27  BEITIA CRISPIN           FORD ESCORT         1:08.138        0.518
11 12  CARDUCCI LEANDRO         H CIVIC             1:08.179        0.559
12 28  YANNANTUONI FABIAN       H CIVIC             1:08.193        0.573
13 11  FINESCHI OSCAR           H CIVIC             1:08.402        0.782
14 26  GARCIA NELSON            FORD ESCORT         1:08.415        0.795
15 10  BUGLIOTTI MARCELO        CH ASTRA            1:08.519        0.899
16 40  LORENZATTI FRANCO        FORD ESCORT         1:08.560        0.940
17 41  PEZZINI FABRICIO         H CIVIC             1:08.724        1.104
18 16  SATORRA JUAN PABLO       FORD ESCORT         1:08.743        1.123
19 14  BAINOTTI MARIANO         H CIVIC             1:08.813        1.193
20 18  LOPEZ JUAN MANUEL        ALFA ROMEO 146      1:08.816        1.196
21 21  DI PALMA MARCOS          CH ASTRA            1:08.853        1.233
22 34  " REX "                  MITSUB LANCER       1:08.878        1.258
23 20  CINGOLANI DANIEL         CH ASTRA            1:08.967        1.347
24 17  KERN NICOLAS             FORD ESCORT         1:09.006        1.386
25 36  TUERO ESTEBAN            VW POLO             1:09.027        1.407
26 29  INFANTE JULIO            H CIVIC             1:09.354        1.734
27 35  CRESPO JULIAN            VW POLO             1:09.394        1.774
28 30  CORLETTA ROBERTO         FORD ESCORT         1:09.795        2.175

Average 144.969 km/h.

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