By Irina Boyarskaya
Photo: Akis Temperidis
As we know, Imola is a circuit with an attitude. However, every racing circuit is a capricious lady, and when it is showered by rain well and properly...
Let us not to hurry, because the rain will be turned on only on Sunday, and we are talking about Friday now, the day of free practices and a qualification. Most of the participants would begin to collect qualification points on Saturday races, but not Côme Ledogar. The first point – bing! – fell into the Tsunami RT collection after the first qualification – Côme won the pole position!
Oleksandr Gaidai had more difficulties during the second qualification, first of all, because of the additional weight in the car. He had to share the car with Côme, and the French driver weighed less, so the additional weight had been installed in the car. When it was Gaidai’s turn to drive, it was impossible to remove the additional kilograms, so Oleksandr had to carry them. Gaidai’s weight “with the weightage” is 104 kg at minimum of 85 kg. It is very significant when we talk about the speed over 300 kph and hundredths of seconds in a lap...
Nevertheless, Gaidai reached the decent seventh position during the second qualification. Mikael Grenier started fifth in both races of Saturday, and Matteo Torta was closer to the end of the peloton.
The very first lap of the Saturday race ended up with the changing on the track. Matteo Torta made a mistake, he was turned around and hit by Walter Ben who had not enough time to pull up. After that both drivers moved towards the boxes, and the safety car replaced them.
Meanwhile there were no changes in the beginning of the peloton: Ledogar was the leader, followed by the united duet of Alessio Rovera and Mattia Drudi, and then Gianluca Giraudi and Mikael Grenier.
C. Ledogar: “The safety car was not any obstacle for us: it entered the track on the first lap, so it had no time to ruin the race to anybody.”
Nevertheless, the green flag appeared on the track only 14 minutes before the end of the race. That was the moment when the most interesting started.
Mikael Grenier was under serious pressure from behind: Di Amato, Fulgenzi and Giraudi who had rolled back, all were fighting for the fifth place!
Drudi tried to attack the leading Ledogar, pressing on him seriously, but Ledogar’s dealt with it artistically and faultlessly.
Two cars of Dinamic Motorsport, those of Marco Pellegrini and Stefano Zanini, were turned around almost simultaneously in the same turn. But this happened behind the two leading groups...
The striped flag was demonstrated 11 minutes before the finish due to oil on the track. Like it had been very easy before. Mikael Grenier reached Eric Scalvini, but he could not attack: the three competitors pressed from behind.
4 minutes left to the finish. Drudi was attacking actively. It was a real pleasure to watch the duel, but an emotional one, we should say. However, Côme is not the person to be overrun so simply! The finish brought the first victory of Tsunami RT Centro Porsche Padova in the season!!
C. Ledogar: “We did a good job, all the team was doing great. The car was impeccable, I was just driving fast from start to finish. It is always simpler to start from the pole position, because nobody looms in ahead, you just should keep pace and not let anybody overrun you.”
Porsche Carrera Cup Italia 2016, round 2, Imola, 28-29/05/16
Race 1
1. LEDOGAR Côme (Tsunami RT) 13 laps
2. DRUDI Mattia (Dinamic Motorsport srl) +0.362
3. ROVERA Alessio (Ebimotors srl) +0.881
...5. GRENIER Mikael (Tsunami RT) +7.824
…14. PELLEGRINI Marco (Dinamic Motorsport srl) +1:04.678
Evening came to Imola, and it meant that it was time for the start of the second sprint race of the Porsche Carrera Cup round. Grenier, Torta and Gaidai were on the track.
And it was Oleksandr to whom misfortunes happened. Firstly, he was pushed on the gravel by Simone Iaquinta, and then definitely pushed off the track by Eric Scalvini. Gaidai was removed to the 12th position.
Leading ahead, we will tell you that Scalvini would be penalized by 20 seconds, but before that, immediately after the finish, he would come to our driver to apologize for the wasted race. Eric seemed to be even more worried than Oleksandr Gaidai…
But for the moment we are talking about the race continued. Mikael Grenier lost one position on the start, having given way to Simone Iaquinta. From that moment Mikael would approach the competitor’s bumper and attack actively, making him to make mistakes.
In front of them Mattia Drudi and Gianluca Giraudi were interchanging the leading position for a couple of times, but Drudi was still leading the peloton.
Oleksandr Gaidai won two positions back. Grenier was attacking actively, and Iaquinta began to make more mistakes. Live cameras were showing only that duel ignoring all the other competitors. 8 minutes left to the finish: Iaquinta was not giving way to Grenier and pushed the side of his car when they were near each other. Prudent Mikael gave way to the competitor to avoid the fall-out but continued attacking. But Simone made a mistake again (Grenier wore him out!) and let Mikael to overrun him.
So, Mattia Drudi won the race, Mikael Grenier was the fifth, Oleksandr Gaidai – the ninth, Matteo Torta – on the 13th position.
O. Gaidai: “Eric Scalvini came to me after the race and apologized for the collision. It is pleasant when a competitor demonstrates such a decent behavior, it is rare. And I just did my best, won the positions back and tried not to make mistakes when driving. Yes, I wanted to be among the five leaders, but I couldn’t do that. It happens, it’s motor sports...”
Porsche Carrera Cup Italia 2016, round 2, Imola, 28-29/05/16
Race 2
1. DRUDI Mattia (Dinamic Motorsport srl) 16 laps
2. GIRAUDI Gianluca (Ebimotors srl) +2.259
3. ROVERA Alessio (Ebimotors srl) +5.040
...5. GRENIER Mikael (Tsunami RT) +20.146
…9. GAIDAI Oleksandr (Tsunami RT) +37.335
…13. TORTA Matteo (Tsunami RT) +1:30.744
…15. WALTER BEN (Dinamic Motorsport srl) +1 lap
Nobody knew that everything would change so much that Sunday. But the celestial chancellery already issued a guideline to flood the circuit in Imola with the rain keeping apace with the rest of Europe (in particular, with Nurburgring, that was just washed off) and see the results. And the results were really unexpected...
The race started with the safety car. The participants of the third race of Porsche Carrera Cup Italia in Imola were trailing the safety car for 12 minutes, and some of them were ready to spend the rest of the race like that: not many Italian drivers feel themselves confident on a wet track... When the Sun came out from behind the clouds, the race was restarted on the deep puddles, in complete mist spray, and the visibility deteriorated the more was the distance from the leaders.
So, you already understood that it was the situation where Oleksandr Gaidai felt quite at home, and he demonstrated it at once, having overrun Gianluca Giraudi.
There is the list of drivers who consecutively appeared on the gravel: Mattia Drudi, Alex De Giacomi, Stefano Zanini. Giraudi attacked Gaidai, and it was rather dangerous attack.
O. Gaidai: “Gianluca tried to overrun me, and I understood that if I had closed the space he would have taken down both of us, and both of us would not have finished the race. And I just gave way to him...”
The safety car unexpectedly entered the track and disappeared as the Cheshire cat. Mattia Drudi left the track because of problems with the car. Gianluca Giraudi hit the fence and broke the car. Oleksandr Gaidai intended to overrun Alessio Rovera: he was already competing for the leadership!
At that moment the pit lane for shift of drivers was opened. That what the perfect work of the team means: Gaidai entered the pit lane second, and Côme Ledogar left it 10 seconds ahead Alessio Rovera!
The rest of the race was held with the interview of Oleksandr Gaidai taken by the live broadcasting directors. It looked as follows.
Gaidai: “You know, I like driving on the wet track and I know how to do it.”
Meanwhile, on the track Daniele Di Amato is jumping on the gravel.
Gaidai: “Of course, the visibility is poor, and there is some aquaplaning, of course... you have to be very careful when choosing a trajectory.”
Marco Cassara performes a fouette on the track.
Announcer: “We remember your performance in Mugello. Where was it more difficult?”
There is Alex De Giacomi in the gravel on the track.
Gaidai: “Of course, in Mugello. I had rain tires here, but I had slicks there.”
We hear the sound of a falling body: the announcer fainted.
Di Amato and Marco Pellegrini are in the gravel on the track.
Côme was drawing trajectories leading the peloton, as a real calligrapher, without any smallest mistake. The second was Mikael Grenier who had overrun Rovera accurately and faultlessly. And at that very moment, like a bolt from the blue, Grenier was penalized with the pit lane crossing for violation of time limits on the pit stop.
As it revealed after the race, Mikael had left the pit stop 0.6 seconds earlier that he had to. It was extremely offensive to lose half a minute for half a second, but these are the rules... As the result, Grenier could finish only on the sixth position.
Matteo Torta was ninth. Not only the speed but also accuracy was crucial, and the young Italian coped with all well.
And Côme Ledogar and Oleksandr Gaidai ascended the top of the podium to listen to “La Marseillaise” and the anthem of Ukraine from there!!
O. Gaidai: “The race was not simple, and I am very happy that I could win the cup for the first place in the absolute classification on my favorite track!”
Porsche Carrera Cup Italia 2016, round 2, Imola, 28-29/05/16
Race 3
1. GAIDAI Oleksandr/LEDOGAR Côme (Tsunami RT) 17 laps
2. ROVERA Alessio (Ebimotors srl) +21.623
3. DI AMATO Daniele (Dinamic Motorsport srl) +25.700
...6. GRENIER Mikael (Tsunami RT) +43.132
…9. TORTA Matteo (Tsunami RT) +1:09.036
…13. ZANINI Stefano (Dinamic Motorsport srl) +2 laps
It was a perfect Imola race, in spite of the anti-clockwise direction, how do you think?! Now Misano is waiting for us with its third PCCI round. We have only two weeks left. Will we have enough time to miss each other?