It's already getting serious on the morning of the Porsche Carrera Cup Italia pre-season test underway in Imola with 28 drivers and 13 teams engaged in the first collective “trip” ahead of the 2024 season.
On a sunny Thursday with pleasant temperatures, also favored by ideal conditions, the most awaited in the championship are already there in front with respectable feedback for the 911 GT3 Cup. The reigning champion Larry Ten Voorde did not wait long and has already clocked in with consistency the card of the fastest: in the middle of the day he set the time limit at 1'42”201.
For the Enrico Fulgenzi Racing standard-bearer, this is a remarkable time, which already beats Marvin Klein's 2023 pole position, set last October, by 8 tenths.
The Dutchman immediately started to “pull” the group and behind him the most awaited rivals in the chase for the title climbed up, with Klein (Target Competition), Simone Iaquinta (Prima Ghinzani Motorsport) and Keagan Masters (Team Q8 Hi Perform) chasing him, although separated by more than a second (also a question of tyres): 1'43″218 for the French double champion, 1'43″313 for the Italian double champion and 1'43″448 for the young South African.
Francesco Braschi's fifth time in the Dinamic Motorsport 911 GT3 Cup was interesting: the 19-year-old driver from Cattolica lapped in 1'43”509, obtaining the best time among rookies. Close behind are Diego Bertonelli, author of the sixth match with TDE (1'43″614), and Pietro Armanni, the 19-year-old from Brescia who was seventh of the morning in 1'43″656 with Prima Ghinzani.
The eighth time comes from his Austrian peer Horst-Felix Felbermayr (1'43″735 with TDE), while the top-10 is completed by the German Lirim Zendeli (1'43″762 on his debut in the Carrera Cup with Ombra Racing) and by the two-time champion Gianmarco Quaresmini, back in Tsunami RT (1'43”800).
Behind Braschi, Zendeli is also second among the rookies, with third (and 11th overall) the youngest of the lot, the 16-year-old Nicholas Pujatti from Pordenone, overall “deb” with Villorba Corse.
Among the protagonists of the Michelin Cup, Gianluca Giorgi stood out: the BeDriver standard bearer lapped in 1'44”571, obtaining the 16th overall result. In the “bronze” category, second best time for Stefano Stefanelli (Team Malucelli), 4 tenths of a second behind, and third at half a second for Paolo Gnemmi (Ebimotors).
Several red flags were displayed during the session, but always lasting a few minutes and to restore all the starting conditions after the gravel outings which in sequence involved Stefanelli himself at the Piratella, Flavio Olivieri at the Tamburello and the two outings of Ilario Introna at Acque Minerali and at the end at Rivazza 1, interspersed with a stop by Alberto De Amicis in the second sector.
The afternoon session is scheduled from 2.30pm to 6.00pm followed by the starting tests from 6.05pm to 6.20pm.
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