Simone Iaquinta is the signature of race 1 in Vallelunga in the second round of the Porsche Carrera Cup Italia 2023. The 2019 and 2020 champion of the Ghinzani Arco Motorsport team won the contest at the end of a crazy race, characterized by several accidents, three safety car and the arrival of the rain, with the inevitable red flag displayed in the finale.
Starting from the front row, Iaquinta preceded the two Dinamic Motorsport standard bearers Giorgio Amati and Gianmarco Quaresmini on the podium, who took advantage of the 10-second penalty inflicted on Matteo Malucelli, author of the pole position but who, like last year, incredibly repeated a jump start at the start which in the end cost him the second place with which he had finished at the finish line.
In addition to the early start of Malucelli, the twist at the start was the stall of Leo Caglioni (Ombra Racing), who started from the third row. Shivers behind him with the other contestants busy avoiding him.
Unlucky in particular Jorge Lorenzo (Team Q8 Hi Perform), who hit Caglioni’s car and had to retire and Eric Brigliadori, who on his one-make debut with Ghinzani Arco Motorsport also had to stop with the car now undriveable due to the damages reported.
The safety car then intervened immediately to regroup the group, while Malucelli, Iaquinta, Quaresmini, Amati and Laurini crossed the finish line in the top-5.
The restart marks lap 6 and in the meantime the communication of the penalty imposed on the leader of the race arrives. The time to complete a lap and Laurini runs wide at the Curvone forcing Riccardo Agostini into a precise maneuver to avoid the hitch which however costs the Villorba Corse driver several positions.
While there are also several contacts in the middle of the group and Amati passes third overtaking Quaresmini who was battling with Iaquinta, shortly after the safety car is again used on lap 7 to allow Max Montagnese’s car to be recovered leaning against the barriers of the Traffic light curve.
The race changed again at the new restart, lap 10, when Iaquinta, already virtually first, decisively attacked Malucelli and passed him as he came out of the Trench, gaining leadership on the track as well. Meanwhile the rain, which a few droplets had already glimpsed from the start, began to intensify, effectively forcing the race direction to use the third safety car of the day and after a couple of laps to display the definitive red flag.
Behind Iaquinta, with Malucelli’s relegation from second to 18th, Amati gains second place and Quaresmini completes the podium, while the third Dinamic standard bearer, Aldo Festante, finishes fourth.
At Ombra Racing, after Caglioni’s mistake at the start and Pietro Armanni’s stop after already an unfortunate qualifying, the Chinese Kang Ling performed excellently, able to complete the top-5 thanks to his overtaking on Diego Bertonelli on the second restart.
The Bonaldi Motorsport driver then also lost sixth position to ALberto Cerqui (BeDriver) and finished seventh, ahead of a perky Zakhar Slutskii, the Target Racing rookie who had climbed up to eighth place.
After the thrill experienced with Laurini, Riccardo Agostini closes the race in ninth place leading the Villorba Corse duo which also sees Benny Strignano finish positively in the top-10.
In the Michelin Cup, the starting positions in the home “derby” did not change between Alberto De Amicis, who with Ebimotors won the third race out of three in the season, and Francesco Fenici, who took the Roman AB Racing team to an important second step in the podium after the post-race 2 vicissitudes experienced at Misano.
Third in the comeback is the inevitable Alex De Giacomi (Tsunami RT), who for his part precedes Paolo Gnemmi (Ebimotors) and Livio Selva (Ghinzani Arco Motorsport).
Tomorrow (Sunday) race 2 will crown the Porsche Italia one-make weekend in Rome starting at 12.10 on live free-to-air TV on Cielo (26 digital terrestrial) and via satellite on Sky Sport Arena (Sky 204). Live streaming is also available in HD on www.carreracupitalia.it.
