Lirim Zendeli (Ombra Racing) produced a good race to finish in fourth place in the opening clash of round 4 of the Porsche Carrera Cup Italia weekend at the Imola circuit, after an excellent qualifying performance in the morning came to nothing when he was penalized by the stewards shortly afterwards.

The MIM-contracted driver was in fact hit with a five-place penalty on the starting-grid for impeding under a full course yellow during the session, but he then made amends during the thirty-minute race with a gutsy performance and some good overtakes that hauled him up from P6 to P4 under the chequered flag.

Lirim got a great start to overtake Simone Iaquinta (Ghinzani Motorsport) and Benjamin Paque (Target Competition) before the mid-point of the opening lap, but then a couple of errors saw him drop down to P7 and come under pressure from Alberto Cerqui (BeDriver) before the safety-car came out for the first time of three.

The young German then got an even better jump on the restart and gained another place when Bayley Hall (BeDriver) made a mistake, then he inherited fourth place when his Rookie rival Francesco Braschi (Dinamic Motorsport) slid out of third with four laps remaining, as the 30-minute race came to an end under the safety-car. Winner was Marvin Klein (Target Competition) who led from start to finish despite coming under pressure from Lirim’s Ombra Racing teammate Keagan Masters.

“Once again, I got a great start, but I was just too hungry at the beginning,” explained Lirim. “I wasn’t thinking that Braschi had new tyres and I just can’t match his pace in the beginning. I did a lot of mistakes and went wide twice, damaging my car for an off. But the damage was not too big, and I fought my way back, then in the last few laps, my steering was broken completely. He moved and braked and my steering wheel just went 180° and was destroyed basically, but at the end the safety-car saved me a bit.”

“Tomorrow, I start from pole, so I’ll just do my usual start. I don’t think anyone has done a better start this year, but maybe I should just keep a bit calmer in the first four or five laps. I still need to learn. I don’t know how the experienced guys are doing it to be so fast at the beginning, I just kind of lose control over the car when I really push hard. In the first lap, I push a lot and I’m very fast, but then in the second or third lap they just get everything out of the tyre, and I eventually catch up. We’ll see for tomorrow, but I’m confident that it’s going to be a good race.”