Once again, Ten Voorde was the best at “putting everything together”, the typical expression used for a perfect (or almost) perfect lap in connecting all the best sectors along the track.
The 2024 Porsche Carrera Cup Italia made its season debut at the Misano World Circuit with a spectacular and very tight qualifying session, finding its reigning champion at the top of the standings (although it will then be race 1 this evening at 9.00pm that will count more) and one ultra-compact lineup in pursuit, in which it is now essential to “put everything together” so as not to lose one, two, three and now even four or five positions for a handful of tenths (if not hundredths…).
This is why the starting grid of race 1, with the Dutchman ahead in order of Iaquinta, Masters, Braschi, Festante, Cerqui, Zendeli, Hall, Quaresmini and Klein also becomes the grid of missed opportunities if not for everyone at least for many of the protagonists in the top-10. And someone could really get their hands on the pole then obtained by the reigning champion.
Take Iaquinta, second at 161 thousandths and with the best split time in split 1. Prima Ghinzani’s double champion gives a calm analysis of the qualifying, but still highlights a flaw: “I was taking pole, but I didn’t do the last corner well and I ended up second, but it’s okay, starting at the maximum in the top 3 was the target. I could probably have done a 34″6… Unfortunately I stalled slightly at the entering the last bend and I lost two meters of rope and a couple of tenths. I believe that especially in the race pace, however, I, Ten Voorde and Masters will have something more. We’ll have to see who will be ready first, who will be ready later and who will emerge in the end, let’s see!”.
Instead, the missed opportunity of the Masters has to do with ideal time. The new standard bearer of Team Q8 Hi Perform finished third just a few hundredths behind Iaquinta, but taking into account the best actual sectors of each, the South African could have overtaken Ten Voorde for what would have been a stunning pole by just one thousandth! That is 1’34″700 against the 1’34″701 of the Dutchman…
All of this gives us an even clearer idea of how details are even more fundamental this year. Curiously, at the end of the Masters qualifying, despite having the ideal best lap, he was not the fastest in any of the 4 splits into which the Misano world Circuit is divided…
In addition to the first by Iaquinta (24″952), split 2 and split 4 belong to Ten Voorde (22″255 and 20″980), while the third in 26″378 is all by Francesco Braschi, the most surprising and confirmed rookie in great form after the excellent times in testing and free practice.
The young standard-bearer of Dinamic Motorsport, however, for this very reason can also complain a little, especially considering the fact that he was unable to improve his results with the second set of new Michelins, that is, in the most ideal conditions in which all the top drivers they improved.
“I had a problem with the front – explained the Catholic pilot –especially in turn 3 I was struggling to keep the car on the track, we are analyzing the data because we didn’t make any changes after the tire change… the potential was higher, but we’ll give it our all in the race, we’re here! “
Having said that the absolute ideal lap today in Misano would have been a stratospheric 1’34″565 and reiterated that Ten Voorde did not arrive that far from that limit, also Lirim Zendeli (who encountered traffic and yellow flags), Alberto Cerqui (again not 100% confident with his car), Gianmarco Quaresmini (touched by rookie Oliver Gregor at Carro, no penalty after the investigation) and Marvin Klein (only tenth with a thousandth of a second ahead of rookie teammate Janne Stiak) they have something to be not entirely satisfied with.
Tonight’s night at 9.00 pm (live Dazn e www.carreracupitalia.it) it will be the immediate opportunity to move up, just as the Misano qualification, the first of the season, could confirm that this year being perfect (and lucky) in the official tests is an even more decisive variable in such a balanced lineup.
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