Some surprises, some confirmations, someone who shone, read Aldo Festante and Diego Bertonelli, someone who hid and someone who was not exactly happy with the first free practices of the Porsche Carrera Cup Italia season, which took place last night at night in Misano.
Now it’s the morning of official testing, with the highly anticipated qualifying ahead of race 1 at night this evening. The battle for the two pole positions (also that of race 2 on Sunday) promises a great show: all the protagonists will make the most of the new tires and who knows, given the limits reached in the test on Thursday by Larry Ten Voorde (1’35” 332) and by Festante last night (although slightly slower in different conditions given that he shot in the dark and in the cool) someone fails to touch up the record of 1’35″043 set by the Dutchman in October.
It won’t be easy to get under that wall, at the moment the sky in Misano is cloudy and there’s no guarantee that temperatures will reach ideal peaks on the asphalt in the morning. And then there is always the traffic, another crucial variable on the Romagna circuit, where the Porsche Italia single-make series returned to the start with 31 entries.
In the match, in which even very small gaps are expected and therefore every little detail can make the difference (track limits in the lead), will be the aforementioned Festante and Bertonelli.
The first, the fastest yesterday in 1’35″751, took over the reins of the Dinamic Motorsport 911 GT3 Cup at a good pace, having appeared on the ball since Thursday also with Francesco Braschi;: “It was a very positive free ascent – commented Festante –. On the last lap I was descending further but I found some traffic, I think I had 2-3 tenths in my pocket, but I think like many others”.
So not all the cards are revealed, this morning is the litmus test: “Now we focus on qualifying and we will try to repeat ourselves. The team is working very well and I am very happy. We just have to push!”.
The words of Bertonelli, the Tuscan standard-bearer of The Driving Experiences who, after a complicated Thursday, stopped just 14 thousandths behind the young Campanian on Friday, were also peppered with a smile: “Last night went well at the start considering we had a fairly fresh set of Michelins. However, it is always difficult to say what mileage the others have in the championship openers and it is difficult to estimate the rivals until everyone uses the new tyre. At the end of the round I saw a more balanced ranking, even if I expected Ten Voorde to be a little further ahead”.
Maybe we could have done better in his case too: “Certainly, the track was getting faster and both Festante and Klein were improving. I didn’t do a good lap, I could have done at least a tenth better, but I’m happy, yesterday we started very badly, I was 16th, I had some mechanical problems which it seems solved. Let’s wait for the qualifying, where there is the real ‘kick-back’, in the free practice it’s just a personal satisfaction. Let’s see who comes back, I’m also curious to see where the many who seem competitive will place. Let’s say we’ll get the point reference point for the season”. Fire to the powder…
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