Again Larry Ten Voorde. After this morning’s pole, the 2023 Porsche Carrera Cup Italia continues to speak Dutch. The new EF Racing driver also made race 1 his own, the first of the season, pulling himself up to full points with even the fastest lap point (1’36″395) at the top of the championship standings in a season that will see him skip of the races but if he continues with this attitude he could still keep him in battle for the title of champion.
It was a thrilling race 1 and also spectacular in many duels, but there was no story up front: the pace of Ten Voorde was unsustainable for everyone else, he led from the start and was also good at regaining a bit of an advantage immediately after the safety car which intervened after half the race to recover Matteo Rovida’s car, which ended off the track in an attempt to avoid Johannes Zelger’s 911 GT3 Cup, which in turn spun.
Behind the Dutchman, Diego Bertonelli from the front row was also good at keeping pace with his pursuers and bringing home the first podium of the season for Bonaldi Motorsport, complete with heavy points for the place of honor maintained even after the safety car, when insidious Simone Iaquinta hoisted himself behind him.
Back in Ghinzani Arco Motorsport, the 2019 and 2020 double champion was an authentic mastiff in the race. First the Calabrian, who started from sixth, overtook Alberto Cerqui and then, after the safety car, at the first good opportunity he crashed into Lorenzo Ferrari, earning a very important third step on the podium.
Just Ferrari (Raptor Engineering) and Cerqui therefore completed the top-5. Both also took advantage of Riccardo Agostini’s crisis after the first 5 laps. The Villorba Corse standard bearer was passed by several rivals after starting from the third spot on the grid, however finishing his return race in the series that he won in 2015 in ninth place.
Ferrari, on the other hand, after passing Cerqui in the first corners after the start, dueled in the final with Bertonelli and Iaquinta, paying for their inexperience in the series, and at the finish line he was a solid fourth on his debut in the Italian one-make series and at the same time best of the Scholarship Program young people.
Cerqui also tried to enter the tussle for the podium. The 2021 champion BeDriver driver appeared as competitive as in practice but was forced to settle for fifth place ahead of landlord Giorgio Amati. The Dinamic Motorsport standard bearer didn’t keep up with the best but in the sprint he still managed to precede Matteo Malucelli.
The Malucelli Team rider from Forlì finished seventh at the finish line after having undermined the Rimini rider and overtaking Agostini and Gianmarco Quaresmini with the second Dinamic Motorsport 911 Gt3 Cup at the finish line. The reigning champion did not go beyond eighth place ahead of Agostini and Andrea Fontana, in good progression from the ninth row at the start and to the first with Ebimotors in battle with Jorge Lorenzo for a long time.
The ex MotoGP now official of the Q8 Hi Perform Team on four wheels was one of the most spectacular riders on the track. Numerous duels involving him with lots of overtaking and counter-overtaking. Starting from 13th, the Majorcan had climbed up to 11th place but in the sprint he gave up to the return of Aldo Festante (Dinamic Motorsport) and then, instead of 12th, he was classified 19th at the end of the race due to a 5-second penalty imposed for having caused a contact when overtaking Lodovico Laurini.
Thus Benny Strignano (Villorba Corse) climbed twelfth, while the two Ombra Racing drivers paid for a contact between them, with Pietro Armanni 17th and Leo Caglioni only 18th, albeit in a comeback, after having had to serve the drive through penalty for having caused the rookie teammate to spin on the first lap.
Thanks to the twentieth position overall, Alberto De Amicis confirms the predictions of the Michelin Cup after snatching the category pole in qualifying. Only in the final stages after the safety car did the Ebimotors standard bearer suffer from the return of Alex De Giacomi, who was in turn second in class with Tsunami RT.
Behind the two, a concrete race and first podium of the season for Francesco Maria Fenici, who with AB Racing in the past had never managed to start a season with a placement worth the champagne at the end of the race.
The driver from Lazio ruled both Pietro Gnemmi (Ebimotors) and Gianluca Giorgi (BeDriver), who completed a top-5 that in the season, given today’s premises, will spark and fight for the title.
Tomorrow (Sunday) race 2 of the first weekend of the season gets underway at 11.55 in live TV on Cielo (26 digital terrestrial) and Sky Sport Arena (Sky 204) and in live streaming on www.carreracupitalia.it. Ten Voorde and Bertonelli are expected again in the front row…
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