After the foreign domination in yesterday’s test, the Italian comeback came on Friday evening in Misano which inaugurated the first round of the Porsche Carrera Cup Italia with an hour of free practice whose gaps already say a lot about what they have in store the 31 protagonists of the Italian single-make series for the rest of the weekend, tonight among other things all obliged to use at least one set of new Michelins.
First at the top of today’s time list is Aldo Festante, who with a late push put the Dinamic Motorsport 911 GT3 Cup in front. The driver from Campania lapped in 1’35″751 and seemed to be able to improve further on the last lap, in which he however returned to the pits.
In a rather cool, linear evening session without any particular episodes, teams and drivers tried to lap as much as possible and within a tenth of Festante’s reference, three other highly anticipated protagonists classified themselves in this first weekend of 2024.
Diego Bertonelli (The Driving Experiences), Marvin Klein (Target Competition, he was also improving right on the last lap) and Larry Ten Voorde (Enrico Fulgenzi Racing, who appeared very on the ball with the pace) finished free practice in top order. 5, completed by Francesco Braschi, fifth just 107 thousandths behind his teammate and once again appearing at ease throughout the entire session.
It is no coincidence that he was the fastest among the contenders for the new Rookie title, with the best pursuer in the category, Lirim Zendeli, who instead finished in tenth position in what was in effect his debut in a single-make championship round tricolor.
The German driver (also with an Albanian passport), new leader of Ombra Racing, remained 7 tenths behind Festante, but it is clear that traffic and differentiated work played a role between the various protagonists, both in the top-10 and outside.
Returning to closer gaps, the two double champions Simone Iaquinta remained below two tenths, sixth with Prima Ghinzani, and Gianmarco Quaresmini (seventh with Tsunami RT), who seemed more incisive after some setup problems suffered yesterday in the test.
Bayley Hall, the Australian new entry from BeDriver (Alberto Cerqui instead finished free practice 12th at 1 second), and the South African Keagan Masters, ninth on his debut with the Team, concluded the surprise test half a second behind Festante. Q8 Hi Perform ahead of Zendeli.
Less than a tenth is also the gap that divided the best two protagonists of the day in the Michelin Cup. The reigning champion Alberto De Amicis (Ebimotors) is ahead of everyone as in the test, followed by Gianluca Giorgi (BeDriver).
The returning Luca Pastorelli was therefore confirmed among the fastest with the third 911 GT3 Cup of Dinamic Motorsport, while Alex De Giacomi (Tsunami RT), Francesco Fenici (Raptor Engineering) and the debutant Cesare Brusa (Prima Ghinzani) followed on the rise. .
However, now it is already time to plan the qualifications: the Carrera Cup Italia returns to the track for the official tests which will decide the lineups for the two races tomorrow (Saturday) at 10.20. The pole positions up for grabs are extremely important on a circuit like the Romagna one and race 1 then takes place at night at 9.00 pm with live broadcast on Dazn also in free mode and on www.carreracupitalia.it.
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