Mugello did not entertain us with unexpected rains this time. What do we need natural cataclysms for if we have Porsche Carrera Cup Italia participants?! They were really doing their best...
There was an orange car with the starting number 14 and Giacon’s surname on board in Tsunami RT paddock in Mugello complementary to the three Porsches with Ukrainian flags on the roof: Jonathan Giacon joined Alessio Rovera and Curti brothers in their competition for qualification points for themselves and for our team.
So, our drivers go to the qualification rounds. At this moment the main character of the racing weekend – the Arabbiata 2 turn – comes up in their narrations. Arabbiata means “spicy” in Italian, spicy as pepper. How much pepper this enchanted place will put in the race plot!
First of all, the “spicy” turn took away the Lino Curti’s opportunity to make it into the second qualification segment. Jonathan Giacon also could not make it. He was trying to improve his time results continuously, but when he came to the pit lane to change the tires for new ones, he did not have enough time to demonstrate a really fast lap already. As for Tsunami RT drivers, only Alessio Rovera proceeded to the second segment and got the third starting position following the pole position holder Gianmarco Quaresmini, and Enrico Fulgenzi.
Let’s get it started!
Everybody starts when the starting signal light was switched off, but Daniele Cazzaniga does that a little bit earlier. He starts having unceremoniously pushed Rovera’s car and having damaged it. Fortunately, the damage is not fatal. Cazzaniga will get a significant penalty expressed in precious seconds, and Rovera... Rovera follows the duet of Quaresmini and Fulgenzi waiting for the outcome.
Alessio Rovera: «I tried to control Fulgenzi and Quaresmini ahead. I was sure Fulgenzi would provoke something because he wanted to win».
Misfortunes begin also for Lino Curti – his car is losing oil, and Lino flows off the track having slipped, and returns in the race only on the 18th position.
Jonathan Giacon is energetically winning back the positions, gradually pulling ahead from the group behind closer and closer to the leaders.
Meanwhile, the leaders are entertaining the honorable audience: Fulgenzi is attacking, and Quaresmini – defending. But the system stumbles at a certain moment, and two leaders collide in a way that they are impossible to be passed by! If it was impossible, the following driver would certainly pitch into this logjam at full speed... Actually, Alessio Rovera performs that.
Then the second miracle comes up – Rovera gets out of the accident having his car battered but still capable of moving on the track! So, he continues to move following the safety car of course. At that moment Alessio is the forth, and Jonathan Giacon has managed to reach the seventh position by that time, Carlo Curty is holding the 11th position, and Lino won five positions back and became the 13th.
After the logjam Francesca Linossi manages to enter the leading group. Soon after the restart she overruns Simone Pellegrinelli and becomes the second! Riccardo Pera leads the peloton. Rovera, followed by Alex De Giacomi, approaches Pellegrinelli. The latter, though, has not enough time to begin the attack because he has to defend from the energetic Jonathan Giacon...
The spicy turn says hi – Carlo Curti makes a mistake and loses two positions. But these are not all the surprises! Jonathan Giacon flies off the track in this very Arabbiata 2! He flies off so that the safety car is called again! Two minutes till the end of the race!
That’s all, my friends. Instead of a spectacular competition on the last lap we observe the dignified finish with the safety car. Only Francesca Linossi, the first female participant in the PCCI history podiuming in the absolute classification, is happy about that. For Tsunami RT it is one of the very few races that ended without the prize-winning podium.
Porsche Carrera Cup Italia 2017, round 4, Mugello
Race 1
1. PERA Riccardo (Ebimotors) 14 laps
2. LINOSSI Francesca (Dinamic Motorsport) +0.264
3. PELLEGRINELLI Simone (Dinamic Motorsport) +1.624
4. ROVERA Alessio (Tsunami RT) +2.226
...
9. CURTI Lino (Tsunami RT) +4.375
10. CURTI Carlo (Tsunami RT) +5.307
...
16. REGGIANI Chicco (Ghinzani Arco Motorsport) +3 laps
Michelin Cup
1. DE GIACOMI Alex (Dinamic Motorsport) 14 laps
2. MERCATALI Niccolo (Dinamic Motorsport) +0.191
3. ZANINI Stefano (Dinamic Motorsport) +0.368
...
5. CURTI Lino (Tsunami RT) +1.876
...
9. REGGIANI Chicco (Ghinzani Arco Motorsport) +3 laps
On Sunday a lot of drivers who have something to say arrive to Mugello circuit. They also have what to fix, even the yesterday winner, Riccardo Pera: he will start on the sixth position today...
Having started the third, Alessio Rovera quickly overruns Alex De Giacomi and Niccolo Mercatali – a little bit later. Now he is the leader! Riccardo Pera fights his way to the second position and starts to attack the Tsunami driver. Jonathan Giacon is stubbornly overrunning the competitors again. Everything would have ended in a different way if there hadn’t been the yesterday triumphant Francesca Linossi on the track. She already approved herself to be a real terminator, pushing all the competitors in the vicinity off the track regularly. This time the victim is Alex De Giacomi. He and Francesca perform a spectacular twin drift that, of course, ends up with the safety car again.
After the restart Riccardo Pera overruns Alessio Rovera and rushes forward... towards a victory?.. Not so fast! This race in Mugello will end much later than the finish and even the prize podium !
Extremely afflicted Rovera is the second to finish, he doesn’t know yet that the referees have fixed the overruns under the yellow flags, before the restart! Pera gets a penalty, and Rovera becomes the winner in the second Porsche Carrera Cup Italia race in Mugello!
Jonathan Giacon finishes the race demonstrating the perfect pace, as he has started from the 15th position!
Jonathan Giacon: «I had a fairly good start and found a little bit of traffic in the first corner but soon I managed to improve my pace. After we took some risks where Linossi spun and at the restart after the safety car I lost precious time before regaining my pace and stick with the group ahead. The car was good and I am happy about it. Tsunami is a nice team and I feel good here right from the first race. I am sorry for yesterday but at least we did better today»
The referees monitoring the observance of the rules get into play again. Cicco Reggiani manages to overrun both Curti brothers under the yellow flags and also gets a penalty, and our drivers go higher in the table of results!
Lino Curti: «This was a weird race in which I lost positions, I regained them, I did one of the fastest laps (in class) and in the end, trying for the 3rd position, I braked late and lost one more to finish in 5th».
Carlo Curti: «I am a little bit happier than after race 1 because I did very few mistakes today. Also I pulled out a pass against Selva in the last lap and gained one more position for the penalty given to Reggiani - who had passed both Lino and me under yellow flags. I look forward getting back at the wheel!»
Porsche Carrera Cup Italia 2017, round 4, Mugello
Race 1
1. ROVERA Alessio (Tsunami RT) 14 laps
2. QUARESMINI Gianmarco (Dinamic Motorsport) +2.058
3. PERA Riccardo (Ebimotors) +2.680
...
6. GIACON Jonathan (Tsunami RT) +12.989
...
11. CURTI Lino (Tsunami RT) +15.795
12. CURTI Carlo (Tsunami RT) +19.973
...
16. WALTER BEN (Bonaldi Motorsport) +39.753
Michelin Cup
1. JACOMA Ivan (Ghinzani Arco Motorsport) 14 laps
2. MERCATALI Niccolo (Dinamic Motorsport) +1.667
3. ZANINI Stefano (Dinamic Motorsport) +2.140
...
5. CURTI Lino (Tsunami RT) +2.480
...
9. WALTER BEN (Bonaldi Motorsport) +26.438
August is a vacation month for Porsche Carrera Cup. It is time to pull ourselves up, to think and to miss hot asphalt, rubber smell, crowd of cheerful viewers in the paddock, announcer’s voice in the loudspeakers over the circuit a lot. To miss each other, too. To wait impatiently the day when we can put down our travel bags, wave our hands and say: “Bon giorno ragazzi! Let us go on!”
By Irina Boyarskaya
Photo: Akis Temperidis