Carrera Cup Italia | Vallelunga: Schuring, the Ten Voorde you don’t expect and other stories…

It is difficult to put together all the factors and ideas, partly exciting, partly controversial and partly almost unique or at least bizarre after the “crazy” Saturday of the Porsche Carrera Cup Italia experienced yesterday in race 1 of the fifth round of 2024 on the Vallelunga circuit.

First of all, it must be said that this morning at 11.30 a game 2 starts (live on Dazn and www.carreracupitalia.it) which becomes even more crucial after Masters’s move to the top of the championship over Ten Voorde, who actually has 2 more points due to the pole position he also obtained for today’s race, but who actually started the chaos from pole position yesterday.

The father of all unforeseen events, after all, in race 1 was the jump start of the reigning champion at the start. Exactly as happened last year to Matteo Malucelli from the same box.

An unexpected blunder, but one that can of course happen, as we have already seen. What is most surprising is how the Fulgenzi Racing driver tried to remedy the situation, closing the way for his onrushing title rival Klein, who was forced to retire off the track by a maneuver that cost Ten Voorde 25 seconds of post-race drive-through (a penalty that was added to the 10 seconds for the jump start).

An unusual track action for the Dutch ace in the Italian single-make series. A clear sign that with the championship heading towards the grand finale with very balanced rankings, tension is rising and every mistake, little mistake or unexpected event can cost dearly.

The fact remains that, like the blameless Klein, Ten Voorde dropped out of the points zone (while the “little ant” Masters maximized his concreteness and took full advantage of the mistakes of others) and it really seemed that this time Braschi had really managed to get his first success in the Carrera Cup Italia.

Instead, after the “pole-jump start” of Vallelunga, here is another sort of anathema, that of the young standard-bearer of Dinamic who is unable to remain on the first step of the podium after having celebrated it for a long time.

It is the second consecutive time that this happens to him. In race 2 at Imola, it was the cancellation of the penalty unjustly inflicted on Klein during the race that dropped him to a still precious second place.

Yesterday, however, the victory slipped away from him due to a 5-second penalty which, again in the post-race and podium (and after another celebration which shouldn’t be pleasant) relegated him to ninth due to a contact with Zendeli on the first lap, while Braschi was climbing up and conquering that very second position (he would later also overtake Stiak) which, behind the penalised Ten Voorde, would have guaranteed him the victory.

And it doesn’t end there, because Stiak himself would have been the winner if he hadn’t made a mistake in his starting position. With Klein offside, it could have been 25 crucial points for Target Competition in the pursuit of the Team title, instead the 5-second penalty given to the young and fast German blond dropped him to 11th, with Flynt Schuring and his rivals from Fulgenzi Racing who at that point “inherited” the victory.

It is certainly not usual to win a race after crossing the finish line in fourth place, but it is right to give credit to the 18-year-old Dutchman for always staying out of trouble and not making the slightest mistake while remaining in full battle with all the rivals ahead of him.

His story continues well in Carrera Cup Italia and the continuity given to the first podium achieved in race 2 at Mugello had still brought him to the podium, where he celebrated that deserved third place behind Braschi and Stiak which then in the evening transformed into his first success. This was also deserved, after all. As well as the first podium of the Australian Bayley Hall (it was therefore not a hat-trick but still a nice double for the boys of the Scholarship Programme followed by Andrea Boldrini), second with BeDriver, and the third place of Zendeli, who with Ombra Racing thus also obtained success in the Rookie classification and got much closer to the title.

Now, however, it is already time to turn the page. Ultimately, everything is still up for grabs. Race 2 is upon us and it is safe to say that it will be an open battle again. Schuring will start from sixth position on the grid, while up front, on the front row, Ten Voorde and Stiak will return, followed this time by Klein, who is looking for revenge (and is only 14 points behind the leaders in the standings), by Zendeli and Bertonelli.

The table below shows how the grid for race 2 will look after yesterday’s qualifying (in this case, the second best time for each driver will count).