Generally speaking, killing is graceless, all the more, if we are talking about tiny little birds. But how can we tell about the weekend when the team is going to kill two birds with one stone having been divided in two parts?
One bird was in Imola – the 5th round of Porsche Carrera Cup Italia; the second – in Magny-Cours and was represented by the 4th round of Porsche Carrera Cup France. Our fans were watching both of the birds with the risk of exotropia... we mean the four cars in Tsunami RT colors.
Generally, everything was happening orderly and peacefully on Friday – free practices were interchanging in France and Italy, everybody was driving at own pace. But here it comes, on Saturday!
Italy. Saturday morning.
Alessio Rovera passes to the second qualification segment without striking a blow, in which the 8 fastest drivers take part. The sun is shining, birds are singing and flying around. Rovera demonstrates the second time result, and his main competitor Riccardo Pera is on the pole position.
Alessio Rovera: "in Q1 it was cool, I just did a good time to get to Q2. Then I did two laps. In the first it was a pretty good lap but in the second lap I went wide in Rivazza. These 2 lost points are important but OK. Maybe we needed to push a little bit more. In the race we need to to a good start and take the lead soon".
Lino and Carlo Curti qualify for the 13th and 15th positions respectively.
# 81 Lino Curti: "it didn't go well, in my first good lap I did a mistake and then I spun. Well, 13th is not good... I hoped for something better. I'll try to make it better in the race".
#18 Carlo Curti: "I'm not happy, despite I had a good feeling with the car the lap time didn't arrive. I lacked some pace. We will see in the race, I feel I will do something better there".
France. Saturday morning.
Thomas Nicolle came to Magny-Cours feeling favorably disposed toward the race. We had had tests there already, and Thomas had shown not half bad results. However, everything went wrong from the very beginning... The driver failed not only to pass the qualification well but also to get things straight with the reason of it.
T. Nicolle: "I have no idea what happened. The car was perfect and I pushed. In the beginning of the season we had tests in Magny-Cours and I set quite a different time then. Well, let's see what the race will show. I came here in a great mood hoping for the podium". But Thomas has to start from the end of the pelotone...
Italy. Saturday evening.
Bethink how to drive a car at low sun. Then transfer the scene to a racing circuit, add the entire company of competitors and remember that there is an urgent need for you to podium. Those were the starting conditions of our "Italian birds"...
Immediately after the start Alessio Rovera finds himself in front of Riccardo Pera with some imperceptible Houdini move, and, take our word for it, the latter was neither daydreaming nor back-pedaling! Nevertheless, the pole position holder enters the very first turn behind Rovera.
Carlo Curti overruns his brother in the first turn, but a tight logjam begins in the second half of the peloton where all the participants lose time.
The leading group is cheerfully jumping on kerbs. Gianmarco Quaresmini rolls back to the end of the top-10 and now he has a burst-through towards the top ahead. Enrico Fulgenzi has caught hold Pera, Ivan Jacoma has caught hold Fulgenzi, and only Pera does not do that because Rovera is flyingly taking himself off...
Quaresmini who suddenly realized that gets to the 4th position. Lino Curti overruns Carlo again. Francesca Linossi attacks Alex De Giacomi but makes a mistake and stays behind the competitor, politely providing the possibility to fight with him to Gianmarco Quaresmini.
Low sun, deceptive shadows, all the gravel with traces, gravel in Luca Pastorelli's car, or rather his car is in the gravel.
Tension is rising, so is the number of mistakes. Lino and Carlo Curti unitedly get their claws into Stefano Zanini, Quaresmini attacks Pellegrinelli, Jacoma rolls back to the seventh position having given up under the pressure... Rovera is ahead in last rays of the sun, all gorgeous and unreachable! It is a nice picture, isn't it?!
Alessio wins the Saturday race in Imola demonstrating the fastest lap at the same time.
Alessio Rovera (perfectly happy): "it was a really good race from the start to the the flag. I managed to create a gap, keep a constant pace, and manage the race. When you make 2-3 seconds gap, you drive well, you use brakes less, that's why I could make some fastest laps. It may have seemed easy from the outside but its never easy, actually you have to be concentrated all time"...
Lino and Carlo Curti finish on the 13th and 14th positions respectively.
#81 Lino Curti: "we had many battles but at the very back of the field. This race was like my qualifying, I couldn't realise what I was thinking. It hasn't been a good race, but let's see tomorrow..."
#18 Carlo Curti: "I did a good start and immediately overtook Lino in Tamburello corner but soon we got messed in the caos and we lost time in the first lap. Lino overtook me again and in the very last lap we tried to take on Zannini but we didn't have enough time. I am positive because I managed to pull out some good laps but I am not happy with my position".
Porsche Carrera Cup Italia 2017, round 5, Imola
Race 1
1. ROVERA Alessio (Tsunami RT) 17 laps
2. PERA Riccardo (Ebimotors) +6.369
3. FULGENZI Enrico (Ghinzani Arco Motorsport) +11.917
...
13. CURTI Lino (Tsunami RT) +39.603
14. CURTI Carlo (Tsunami RT) +40.024
...
17. WALTER BEN (Bonaldi Motorsport) +1 lap
Michelin Cup
1. JACOMA Ivan (Ghinzani Arco Motorsport)
2. DE GIACOMI Alex (Dinamic Motorsport)
3. KOLLER Hans-Peter (Ghinzani Arco Motorsport)
...
6. CURTI Lino (Tsunami RT)
...
10. WALTER BEN (Bonaldi Motorsport)
While the Italian anthem was being performed in Imola in honor of Alessio Rovera, the motors began to roar in Magny-Cours: the start was kicked!
France. Saturday evening.
All the intrigue there reduced itself to the question if Vincent Beltoise would manage to hold his pole position (here comes the spoiler: he did not). If Julien Andlauer became the leader, then the result of the race is well-known (spoiler: it is really so).
The thing is that this race finished much earlier for Tsunami RT than for the others. Stéphane Denoual pushed Thomas Nicolle off the track. He also fell out himself, but what's the use...
In brief, French bird was all downhill on Saturday.
Porsche Carrera Cup France 2017, round 4, Magny-Cours
Race 1
1. ANDLAUER Julien (Martinet By Alméras) 18 laps
2. LATORRE Florian (Martinet By Alméras) +1.475
3. DE NARDA Joffrey (Sébastien Loeb Racing) +5.381
...
13. LINDLAND Roar (Sébastien Loeb Racing) +44.866
Division B
1. LAPIERRE Christophe (Sébastien Loeb Racing)
2. MISSLIN Nicolas (Martinet By Alméras)
3. LINDLAND Roar (Sébastien Loeb Racing)
Italy. Sunday morning.
As you remember (if you have already forgotten, we can remind you), the top-6 of the Saturday race in the Italian series lines up on the start in reverse order on Sunday. Thus Alessio Rovera became the sixth and he had a lot of competitors to overrun.
Those who follow us within the whole season will easily say: if Rovera has to make overruns, the central figure of the racing circuit will be... you are right – a safety car! The downpour is in Imola...
To pack the cascade of events completely, the safety car leaves the track only 14 minutes before the finish. The half of the race passed as if it had never happened...
Rovera instantaneously makes an attack towards Ivan Jacoma. It is very spectacular to watch from outside, and may be very scary from inside – overruns at crazy speed, in complete mist spray. How Alessio can orientate himself there at all? By sound or by smell?..
Having overrun Jacoma, Rovera bumps into Simone Pellegrinelli and loses a lot of time for efforts to overrun him: the admittedly slower competitor balks as best he can. It does not save him from losing of the forth position, but then both of them – Simone himself and Rovera who overran him – are 7 seconds behind Enrico Fulgenzi and the prize podium...
On the last lap Fulgenzi makes a spectacular turn, flows off on the gravel... but he has enough cushion time not to lose the position.
Alessio Rovera finishes with the fourth result and demonstrates the best lap of the race again – with this number of scrimmages on the track!
Lino Curti who did great during the race manages to reach the Michelin Cup podium, but, unfortunately, not for a long time: he gets the penalization for the collision with Livio Selva and rolls back to the 4th position.
Carlo Curti has the 13th result in the absolute classification having made a mistake on the penultimate lap. The driver himself said that it was a really silly mistake, but it should be taken into account that it was his first race in the rain!
Porsche Carrera Cup Italia 2017, round 5, Imola
Race 2
1. QUAREAMINI Gianmarco (Dinamic Motorsport) 11 laps
2. PERA Riccardo (Ebimotors) +2.170
3. FULGENZI Enrico (Ghinzani Arco Motorsport) +9.269
...
11. CURTI Lino (Tsunami RT) +43.815
...
13. CURTI Carlo (Tsunami RT) +1'01.590
...
17. WALTER BEN (Bonaldi Motorsport) +1'41.535
Michelin Cup
1. JACOMA Ivan (Ghinzani Arco Motorsport)
2. SELVA Livio (Ebimotors)
3. DE GIACOMI Alex (Dinamic Motorsport)
4. CURTI Lino (Tsunami RT)
...
10. WALTER BEN (Bonaldi Motorsport)
France. Sunday.
This time Thomas Nicolle had to start from the 15th position on the starting grid. He was with big hopes about the podium and ready to leap into action immediately... and it played a low-down trick with him. Here we are: frayed nerves and a very offensive false start!.. After the penalization of pit lane crossing it was already impossible to hope for the podium in the Division B.
If the previous race had been won by Julien Andlauer, and Joffrey De Narda had showed the best lap, this time the situation was reverse, if anything, and both races were unsuccessful for Tsunami...
Porsche Carrera Cup France 2017, round 4, Magny-Cours
Race 2
1. DE NARDA Joffrey (Sébastien Loeb Racing) 18 laps
2. LATORRE Florian (Martinet By Alméras) +0.884
3. ANDLAUER Julien (Martinet By Alméras) +1.038
...
13. NICOLLE Thomas (Tsunami RT) +1'25.092
...
15. LAPIERRE Christophe (Sébastien Loeb Racing) +2 laps
Division B
1. MISSLIN Nicolas (Martinet By Alméras)
2. LINDLAND Roar (Sébastien Loeb Racing)
3. DENOUAL Stephane (Martinet By Alméras)
4. NICOLLE Thomas (Tsunami RT)
5. LAPIERRE Christophe (Sébastien Loeb Racing)
Italy was much brighter than France this time: golden cup, best laps, various weather conditions – everything was great! Meanwhile, we are going to compare the two racing series again – in Barcelona and in Mugello. The next racing weekend will bring us two birds simultaneously, again!
By: Irina Boyarskaya
Photo: Akis Temperidis, Alexis Goure