Esteban Guerrieri might have only made one appearance in this season’s FIA World Touring Car Championship but he made quite an impact when the WTCC visited his native Argentina in August.
As well as making it through to the Qualifying Q3 shootout on his WTCC debut, Guerrieri set the fastest lap of all at Termas de Río Hondo in his privateer Chevrolet, a performance that put him on top of the voting by an expert panel of media representatives from Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden and UK.
Tamara Aller of Motor y Racing in Spain was particularly impressed with Guerrieri: “Regardless of the advantage for having more new tyres than his competitors, Esteban was fast and on the pace from the onset of the Race of Argentina, despite racing with an ‘old’ Chevrolet RML from Campos Racing. Only a mistake stopped him from a possible front row qualifying after reaching Q3. He proved to have the pace and fighting spirit suited to the top WTCC action.”
Asked for his nomination for WTCC rookie of the year, Aleskandar Babic of Serbiaring.com said simply: “Esteban Guerrieri, hands down.”