Shivering Matteo Malucelli conquered the pole position for race 1 of the second round of the Porsche Carrera Cup Italia at the Autodromo di Vallelunga. The expert driver from Forlì was the author of an exciting qualifying with the second set of new Michelins, thanks to which he set the absolute best time in 1’34″163, which for a tenth of the Malucelli team standard bearer is also worth the new Vallelunga record with the current model of the 911 GT3 Cup and above all 2 useful points for the general classification.
A pole snatched right at the last second before a red flag was shown which ended the session 2 minutes from the end after Enrico Fulgenzi and Lodovico Laurini ended up in the gravel at the Curva del Semaforo.
Alongside Malucelli, dominator in the final with almost 3 tenths on the second, Simone Iaquinta will be on the front row of race 1, who with Ghinzani Arco Motorsport also nailed his best time on the wire.
Second row for the DInamic Motorsport duo formed by the reigning champion Gianmarco Quaresmini and Giorgio Amati, also on the limit of 3 tenths from the race 1 poleman.
Just Quaresmini, however, with the second personal best time managed to snatch the equally important pole of race 2 (and he too 2 precious points for the standings) by beating Malucelli by just 36 thousandths.
Returning to race 1, Leonardo Caglioni qualified in the third row, in the top-5 with Ombra Racing, and Aldo Festante, sixth, confirming the competitiveness of the DInamic-boys. Both half a second from pole.
Then Riccardo Agostini (Villorba Corse) and Lodovico Laurini (again Dinamic) follow at 6 tenths, while Diego Bertonelli (Bonaldi Motorsport) and Alberto Cerqui (BeDriver) were unable to go beyond the fifth row.
The second and third in the championship completed the top-10 7 tenths behind Malucelli, followed in 11th position by the MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo, who qualified 9 tenths away with the 911 GT3 Cup of the Q8 Hi Perform Team.
Qualifying for the Michelin Cup was no less. Only 42 thousandths separate poleman Alberto De Amicis from Francesco Fenici at the end of an exciting fight that sees the Ebimotors standard bearer and the AB Racing standard bearer in the same order also on the grid for race 2.
Paolo Gnemmi tried to enter the good challenge between the home riders and finished third. The Milanese Ebimotors driver preceded Alex De Giacomi (Tsunami RT) and Gianluca Giorgi (BeDriver) in the category.
On the other hand, Alexandre Papadopulos (Tsunami RT) had unlucky qualifying, stopped in the pits with gearbox problems after only two laps of outs and ins, and Pietro Armanni (Ombra Racing), who also returned to the pit after only one attempt.
After a hard-fought qualifying session, the teams are now preparing for race 1, which starts this afternoon at 16.40 with live TV broadcast on Sky Sport Arena (Sky channel 204) and live streaming in HD on www.carreracupitalia.it.
Qualifying times for race 1
POS. Team Driver Time/gap 01. Matteo Malucelli Team Malucelli 1’34”163 02. Simone Iaquinta Ghinzani Arco Motorsport +0″291 03. Gianmarco Quaresmini Dinamic Motorsport +0″297 04. Giorgio Amati Dinamic Motorsport +0″307 05. Leonardo Caglioni Ombra Racing +0″571 06. Aldo Festante Dinamic Motorsport +0″573 07. Riccardo Agostini Villorba Corse +0″641 08. Lodovico Laurini Dinamic Motorsport +0″692 09. Diego Bertonelli Bonaldi Motorsport +0″736 10. Alberto Cerqui BeDriver +0″743 11. Jorge Lorenzo Team Q8 Hi Perform +0″917 12. Kang Ling Ombra Racing +0″984 13. Lorenzo Ferrari Raptor Engineering +1″077 14. Andrea Fontana Ebimotors +1″114 15. Benedetto Strignano Villorba Corse +1″139 16. Zakhar Slutskii Target Competition +1″171 17. Enrico Fulgenzi EF Racing +1″185 18. Artem Slutskii Target Competition +1″242 19. Eric Brigliadori Ghinzani Arco Motorsport +1″309 20. Marçal Muller EF Racing +1″545 21. Alberto De Amicis Ebimotors +1″739 22. Francesco Maria Fenici AB Racing +1″781 23. Paolo Gnemmi Ebimotors +1″899 24. Giuseppe Guirreri Raptor Engineering +1″901 25. Alex De Giacomi Tsunami RT +2″172 26. Gianluca Giorgi BeDriver +2″334 27. Marco Galassi Team Malucelli +2″692 28. Max Montagnese Team Malucelli +2″911 29. Livio Selva Ghinzani Arco Motorsport +3″018 30 Huilin Han AB Racing +3″420 31. Johannes Zelger Tsunami RT +3″652 32. Massimo Navatta Raptor Engineering +4″893 33. Pietro Armanni Ombra Racing +23″125 34. Alexandre Papadopulos Tsunami RT No time
