By Irina Boyarskaya
Photo: Akis Temperidis
Any race is always an adrenaline shock two off days long. But there are the weekends that give a thrill not only during them but also at the very memory of it. The sixth Porsche Carrera Cup Italy round belongs just to this last category. Although, it is never boring in Imola.
Côme Ledogar and Mattia Drudi habitually shared the pole position on the qualifications. The two drivers – heigh-ho, clear the way! – were demonstrating unreal time results, and Côme managed to demonstrate the results beyond one minute and 45 seconds during the second qualification: 1'44.683 – the result that our French driver considers the decent one for the PCCI leader and the newly-baked Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup series winner.
C. Ledogar: "It was an outstanding lap, one of the best laps of my life. I don't understand how I managed to demonstrate such time!"
As for Oleksandr Gaidai and Mikael Grenier, they dedicated Friday to the attempts to make the car obey to the drivers' wish and not to wabble (excuse my language) with its tail end like a model on a new collection fashion show. The sixth starting position for Mik and the tenth – for Oleksandr became the compromise between the way of moving of the car and the efforts of the sportsmen.
O. Gaidai: "What Côme did is the thing only he can do! And we seem to have a problem with the car – its rear part moves the way it shouldn't be. We will search for a problem, it is not obvious and we cannot discover it at once. Besides, there were double checkered flags on my fast lap, so, of course, I am not satisfied with the result. We will try hard tomorrow."
Saturday morning, and the car of Ledogar (on the second position) and of Grenier (on the sixth position) were on the start. Together with the other PCCI participants, of course. Signal light... go!
Mik Grenier at once overran Alessio Rovera who had slept through the start and was moving somewhere towards the end of top-10. Côme Ledogar rushed in pursuit of the peloton leader, Mattia Drudi. Rovera, having shaken up and revealed that the race had already started, gathered speed, overran Enrico Fulgenzi and intended to overrun our Canadian driver. Daniele di Amato and Edoardo Liberati were fighting with the gloves off for the third position, both close enough to Côme Ledogar, but not attacking him a lot.
Ledogar and Drudi were churning out the best laps trying to outdo each other, but Mattea was moving away from the Tsunami RT driver bit by bit. The most spectacular battle was going on for the fifth position, where Mikael Grenier was blunting the attack of Alessio Rovera. Mik was rock-solid, Rovera was nervous, finally made a mistake and remained three seconds behind Grenier and would never be able to draw up with this gap.
Mattia Drudi crossed the finishing line first, Côme Ledogar was the second, and Daniele di Amato raised on the winners podium with them.
C. Ledogar: "You know, there are days when we are the fastest, and sometimes it is different. Today is the second type of the day: Drudi was faster, and I could not manage to overtake him, even trying as I did."
M. Grenier: "There was a very hard pressure of Rovera, it was really difficult for me to preserve the position on several laps, especially on the straight. But he finally made a mistake in Rivazza turn..."
Porsche Carrera Cup Italia 2016, round 6, Imola, 24-25/09/16
Race 1
1. DRUDI Mattia (Dinamic Motorsport srl) 16 laps
2. LEDOGAR Côme (Tsunami RT) +3.784
3. DI AMATO Daniele (Dinamic Motorsport srl) +8.332
...5. GRENIER Mikael (Tsunami RT) +14.155
...14. WALTER BEN (Dinamic srl) +1 lap
The second race of Saturday became absolutely confusing for our team. Côme Ledogar got the penalty... for the false start, having started from the pole position! Having returned on the track after the pit lane crossing, our driver was only the sixth and finished on that position.
Meanwhile Oleksandr Gaidai did not feel bored too. The brilliant start with a breakthrough on three positions to the top, mistake in the same Rivazza turn and loss of five positions, persistent fight on each lap and a spectacular duel with the old competitor Alex De Giacomi – it is the summary of the 25-minute race performed by Gaidai. The result is the seventh place following Côme.
Porsche Carrera Cup Italia 2016, round 6, Imola, 24-25/09/16
Race 2
1. DRUDI Mattia (Dinamic Motorsport srl) 16 laps
2. DI AMATO Daniele (Dinamic Motorsport srl) +2.496
3. ROVERA Alessio (Ebimotors srl) +15.341
...6. LEDOGAR Côme (Tsunami RT) +27.382
7. GAIDAI Oleksandr (Tsunami RT) +43.789
...15. WALTER BEN (Dinamic srl) +1 lap
Of course we had the highest hopes for Sunday, because it was possible to obtain the maximum of qualification points, there was time to overrun when the competitors' tires were worn out, there was a possibility to save seconds on the pit stop... The last one did not apply to us, though: Côme Ledogar had to stay additional 10 seconds on the pit lane, but his main competitor, Mattia Drudi, had 15 seconds of handicap this time. So... we had pretty good chances. Plus the pole position.
Mattia Drudi slept through the start this time, suddenly having found himself the eighth instead of the second. It was Mikael Grenier to become the hero of the beginning of the race as he rose from the 8th to the 4th position in one lap. He conveniently fixed himself behind the Iaquinta and Di Amato duet and began to wait for the proper time. Meanwhile Drudi was attacking Rovera who was tailgating Fulgenzi. Grenier came closer to Iaquinta and Di Amato.
Then the live broadcasting director did not know who to follow. Di Amato-Iaquinta-Grenier were the right choice: heart aflutter, we saw how Iaquinta made a mistake, jumped on the grass having cut the turn and won one position with that, how he was attacked by Daniele, how Mikael joined from the side...
M. Grenier: "We were driving shoulder to shoulder with Iaquinta, he pushed me on the grass where I could not brake in a normal way (the track was down the hill) and I drove into him in the turn. He escaped from the track, pushed out Di Amato, and I was turned around, my tires got out of order almost completely. It was a pity that Oleksandr had to drive the damaged car, it was not so simple, I understand. If there wasn't the incident, we would take the podium easily!"
But we were far from the podium at that moment – we had a mandatory pit stop with the change of driver ahead, and Mattia Drudi had already reached the second position...
Unfortunately, the Sunday race in Imola turned out a real disappointment for Drudi: the gearbox failure deprived him of the chance on not only the finish but also the title according to the outcome of the season. It was really a pity, because Mattia is an excellent driver and a strong competitor. But at the maximum he could count in the final race in Mugello was the vice champion title.
Oleksandr Gaidai was fighting with the car that, of course, behaved itself not in its best way after the collision, and bald patches had been formed on the tires after the Mik's turn. The driver from Odessa was so carried away by the process of driving that he did not even noticed... what position he finished on! The fifth place is a perfect result under the circumstances, but the overall attention was attracted to the three leading drivers at the moment... Believe me, there was a lot to see!
Côme left the pit stop on the third position. He was preceded by Rovera and a new peloton leader – Enrico Fulgenzi. Our driver coped up with Alessio pretty quickly, but Fulgenzi was hiding skilfully. The "Doberman" did not care a curse of the psychological pressing in the form of light blinking and maximum closing on – Enrico did not care of those subtle matters at all. Côme was attacking continuously... and at some moment the slight touch of Fulgenzi's bumper sent the Italian driver into rotation. (Not for malicious joy, but for objectiveness only let us remind that Enrico had pulled that trick on the track multiple times with different drivers – those who read our reviews know how often his name was exposed in connection with the collisions initiated by him). This touching was accounted as a racing incident – when nobody is guilty, it just happened.
The problem was of another kind: Alessio Rovera and Hans Peter Koller (the mate of Edoardo Liberati) came forward. Côme did away with Koller effortlessly and signaled to Rovera cheerily: saying "Hi, I am already here". Two Porsches were ripping towards the finish on a dizzying speed, and Rovera passed under the checkered flag 0.082 seconds earlier! This is the time Côme Ledogar lacked to become the Porsche Carrera Cup Italia champion already this Sunday. It is obvious that the viewers and the organizers were cheering because the intrigue was preserved till the final round.
Porsche Carrera Cup Italia 2016, round 6, Imola, 24-25/09/16
Race 3
1. ROVERA Alessio (Ebimotors srl) 25 laps
2. LEDOGAR Côme (Tsunami RT) +0.082
3. LIBERATI Edoardo/KOLLER Hans-Peter (Ghinzani Arco Motorsport srl) +2.697
...5. GRENIER Mikael/GAIDAI Oleksandr (Tsunami RT) +22.869
...13. DRUDI Mattia (Dinamic Motorsport srl) +8 laps
While the participants of the Italian series take their breath, Tsunami RT Centro Porsche Padova has no plans to rest: it is Imola ahead, but as a Porsche Carrera Cup France round already. And you already know that Imola is never boring!