After grabbing pole position for race 1 of the fourth round of the Porsche Carrera Cup Italia in Imola in 1’43″313, the first thing Lirim Zendeli wanted to clarify at the time of the ritual photo was this: “Just this morning I couldn’t shave, I forgot my razor in Germany! At this point I might not do it all weekend!”.
Lucky charm or not, his first pole in the Italian single-make championship is just that, after all: on the razor’s edge. A few thousandths at the photo finish and Marvin Klein and the others are beaten twice, also for the grid of race 2 on Sunday. Staying with today, race 1 starts at 16.25 (live on Dazn and www.carreracupitalia.it) and the Ombra Racing driver will start from the first box on the grid for the first time.
A new step in the growth path that the 25-year-old German driver with a good track record in FIA F2 and F3 has undertaken since this year, almost after having “disappeared from the radar” a bit last year (experiences in the States).
After the “silly” remark, Zendeli commented on this morning’s qualifying: “It was difficult at the beginning because I couldn’t even complete a single lap and I was starting to fear the worst. With the second set I had to understand the car again, I completed 3 laps and made some mistakes but on the penultimate lap I felt everything was fine and then I felt it wasn’t enough to get both poles”.
In the end, the best result came: “Getting the pole feels even better than winning. In a race you can win but many things can happen, while in qualifying you were undoubtedly the fastest of all. Having said that, it is obvious that the race is the decisive one. These two poles are special and I am enjoying them both”.
Their significance goes beyond the two Imola races: “Clearly now in the race I would like to stay in front and maybe take an advantage, but I’ve been showing all season that I have pace, sometimes I haven’t been lucky and things aren’t easy this year. (his first in Carrera Cup, ed.)so this result gives me certainty and serenity and perhaps also an important push for the last two appointments”.
And who knows, at this point, if Zendeli would secretly think about first place in the championship: “I wouldn’t think too much about the title, but obviously I would like to finish in the top 3 and win the Rookie classification. Those are already two goals, I prefer not to add any more”.
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