Carrera Cup Italy | Misano: the pre-race test speaks foreign

If the two hours scheduled in the morning were disturbed by the rain, in the dry the afternoon test in view of the first round of the Porsche Carrera Cup Italia starting tomorrow provided the first answers (and confirmations) at the Misano World Circuit.

In the afternoon session, which ended with 4 foreign drivers in front of everyone, the stamp was put by Larry Ten Vorde, who with the EF Racing 911 GT3 Cup and with the number 1 on the doors immediately began to “pull the group” as of he also managed the rest in the collective pre-season test last month in Imola.

In Misano the Dutch ace responded today with a time of 1’35″332 (and many other interesting times around 35 and a half), i.e. just 3 tenths from his last pole on the circuit named after Marco Simoncelli (October 2023) .

If the reigning champion is a certainty (for the “sentence”, wait at least for qualifying on Saturday morning), there was no shortage of surprises behind him. The new standard bearer of Team Q8 Hi Perform Keagan Masters returned to the Italian single-make championship showing off an excellent 1’35″453 and also excellent close results.

The South African trails by just one tenth, therefore, while the most surprising name in the top-3 is that of the Australian Bayley Hall (in action today in the photo above), new tip from BeDriver. The 19-year-old Australian driver, coming from his country’s one-make counterpart, stopped just 3 tenths behind the leader of the day, showing a quick adaptation to the Porsche Italia series and also to the Romagna circuit after his absence from the collective test in Imola.

The person who confirmed the positive verve already shown in Imola, however, is Lirim Zendeli. The former German F2 and F3 driver of Ombra Racing jumped to fourth place at the end, lapping just a few thousandths behind Hall and overtaking Francesco Braschi as the best contender in the new Rookie category.

For his part, the 19-year-old standard bearer of Dinamic Motorsport, as in Imola, was the fastest among the Italians, 4 tenths behind Ten Voorde, finishing in the top-5 and also preceding his teammate Aldo Festante, sixth, by 7 hundredths.

Standing out in the top-10 is the eighth time of another young man included in the Scholarship Programme, Flynt Schuring, who already has experience in Supercup but is making his debut in the Italian single-brand championship and is the new face of EF Racing. The Dutchman born in 2006 finished 6 tenths of a second behind his compatriot and teammate Ten Voorde, “surrounded” on the time list by several and eagerly awaited “senators”, all two-time Carrera Cup champions.

Marvin Klein (Target Competition) is the two-time French champion engaged in his first Italian season, which opened in Misano in the test with the seventh time in 1’35″924, while the double Italian champions Simone Iaquinta (Prima Ghinzani) and Gianmarco Quaresmini (Tsunami) follow ninth and tenth respectively, turning over the wall of 1st and 36th.

As per tradition at Misano, the gaps have always remained rather small, so much so that in fact the top 16 of the day are within one second.

Author of the 19th result in 1’36″860, Alberto De Amicis inaugurated the chase for the Michelin Cup in the best possible way. The reigning Ebimotors champion broke away and preceded in the order the returning Luca Pastorelli (Dinamic), Gianluca Giorgi (BeDriver) , teammate Paolo Gnemmi, new entry Cesare Brusa (Prima Ghinzani) and Francesco Fenici (Raptor Engineering).

Now, however, the word moves on to the race weekend, the first of the season and the one that really counts: the 31 entrants seen in action already today in the test will find themselves on track tomorrow (Friday) starting from 8.45pm for the free practice of a time that will precede the qualifications and the two races scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.

The times of the test