The Michelin Cup has arrived at the fourth round of the Porsche Carrera Cup Italia in Imola with expectations of a great fight, looking at the category standings, where almost all the contenders are in contention for the title. Today’s qualifying, however, surprised beyond expectations and the two races on the Santerno circuit (this afternoon and tomorrow at 12:00) could further reshuffle the cards.
At the end of the official tests, Cesare Brusa rejoices, for the first time in pole position in the category reserved for semi-professional drivers, ahead in order of Gianluca Giorgi, Alex De Giacomi, Alberto De Amicis and Paolo Gnemmi,
A competition that we can bet that the Bergamo standard-bearer of Prima Ghinzani Motorsport will have to deal with in the race, but in the meantime Brusa managed to gain 6 tenths and pass in this morning’s qualifying, which was by no means an easy session with 32 drivers on the track, two full course yellows used and a red flag to interrupt the pace.
The 1’44″869 obtained is also 7 tenths faster than the pole position that Gnemmi obtained in the round held in Imola in June and 1″6 faster than his own time on that occasion: “Today went well – Brusa declared –I felt very good in the car. It’s a very long route, coming from the two front-wheel drive here is another sport for which we are trying to work as much as possible and this morning it went well. These are the first fruits of this very difficult season”.
What do you have in mind then for this second half of 2024?
“The fundamental thing is to start to get confident with the car, a factor that I can’t always feel. In quotes, it’s always a lottery. In qualifying today I had it and in fact the result arrived.”
In fact, it seemed like I even had a bit of an edge over the competition…
“I felt comfortable in the car and also very good with the tyre: being Michelin I also had to get used to this change. I’m really happy. Maybe this pole is the first of the steps we had in mind.”
Now what should we expect in this weekend’s races?
“It will be more difficult because I’m starting among several riders who are already consolidated in this category. Just being able to maintain a good position at the start and in the first 2 laps will be important.”
How did you approach the 911 GT3 Cup single-make series?
“This is my debut year, but the idea is to maybe do 2-3 seasons to be able to reap the rewards that we hope to find. At least try to win, be there to fight for that. Then obviously the general classification is actually only one, today we are 19th and so it is still very long.”
For a new entry in the series, does it help to have a multiple winner like Simone Iaquinta on the team?
“Absolutely. We have the ability to compare data and so it’s a fundamental step to then proceed in the right direction.”
#Carrera #Cup #Italia #Imola #Brusa #superpole #Michelin #Cup
