It can be safely said that for the first time this season at Vallelunga, in the penultimate round of the Porsche Carrera Cup Italia 2024, everything that was unimaginable that could actually happen happened. Deep down, this is the beauty of motorsport, a deadly mix of human wisdom and feelings, technical factor and timing/timing (“timing”, as the Anglo-Saxons would say).
It doesn’t happen so often, but even some F1 World Championships have been decided by an ant-like behavior, which unlike the cicada stores in the summer, working instead of singing, the reserves for the winter. As Masters did on the Roman circuit. Finding himself at the head of the Italian single-make series probably without even knowing how.
As a result of Ten Voorde’s conduct in both race 1 and race 2, both times damaging both his own result (a second-to-last and a tenth place) and that of Klein (a retirement and a fifth place), the Team Q8 Hi Perform driver is now sensationally at the top of the Carrera Cup Italia.
If someone had told him the day before, he would never have believed it: a fifth and a sixth place were enough for Master to fly to the lead, even though he had only one point ahead of Ten Voorde and just 12 over Klein, who remained fully in the game.
With such a situation, you can expect more than sparks in Monza. Moreover, right in the Temple of Speed the 24-year-old South African, unlike what was seen in Valleunga, where he never found the spark to threaten the leaders, has always proven to be very competitive and won his first race in the Carrera Cup Italia in his debut year 2022. Then last year he was also a great protagonist right in front of Ten Voorde until a contact with Iaquinta.
For his part, the reigning Dutch champion just three weeks ago won his third Supercup title in Monza. A calling card that goes well beyond the heavy. However, in Vallelunga Ten Voorde seemed almost unrecognizable and right that the grand finale is in Monza in two weeks it goes without saying to postpone it to… October after the conduct held in Vallelunga (contacts aside, the Fulgenzi Racing standard-bearer completely squandered two wonderful pole positions with records…).
Klein also paid the price, even if the Frenchman from the Target team was good at staying in the running for the title with a splendid race 2, whose top-5 finish allowed him to keep the two leaders ahead of him “at bay”.
Zendeli has also made progress in the Rookie standings, where the Ombra standard-bearer is now one step away from the title (Braschi paid a heavy price for overtaking the German with contact on lap 1 of race 1), even if the most important news for him is seeing him more and more often at the top.
Two third-place podium finishes are a nice final haul for the first appearance at Vallelunga, in short, and Zendeli commented as follows at the end of race 2 today: “Finally it was a calm race for me! I felt a lot of pressure from Schuring who was following me, but I was able to keep him behind. We didn’t have an ideal pace, we were missing 1 or 2 tenths, but I feel very confident now in the Porsche. I’m happy with the podium and to lead the Rookie standings”.
Monza will ultimately decide both the Team title, where after today’s success of Stiak Target Competition has regained an advantage over Fulgenzi Racing, who in turn had won race 1 with Schuring, and that of the Michelin Cup, where Fenici has slightly extended his lead over De Amici but the question of the “discards” will also have to be carefully evaluated.
In short, October 6-8 in Brianza will be a season finale to play for, hopefully in the most sporting way possible. Below, the situation with which the protagonists of the Italian single-brand championship will arrive in Monza to compete for the various titles.
The rankings
Absolute: 1. Masters 167 points; 2. Ten Voorde ; 3. Klein 155; 4. Zendeli 134; 5. Bertonelli 91; 6. Braschi 86; 7. Stiak 82; 8. Schuring 80; 9. Festante 76; 10. Iaquinta 72.
Rookie: 1. Zendeli 134 points; 2. Braschi 86; 3. Gray 47; 4. Gregor 32; 5. Pujatti 16.
Michelin Cup: 1. Fenici 104 points; 2. De Amicis 96; 3. Gnemmi 88; 4. De Giacomi 72; 5. Brusa 53.
Team: 1. Target Competition 262 points; 2. Enrico Fulgenzi Racing 240; 3. Shadow Racing 199; 4. Dinamic Motorsport 189; 5. The Driving Experiences 154.
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