The 2024 edition of the Porsche Carrera Cup Italia heads to the Autodromo di Vallelunga on the outskirts of Rome for the penultimate double-header round of six counting towards this year’s championship.

For Monaco Increase Management’s contracted driver Lirim Zendeli, there is just one priority in the remaining two rounds, to win the Rookies’ classification, which currently sees the young Ombra Racing – Centro Porsche Bergamo driver lying in first place with an advantage of 30 points over Francesco Braschi (Dinamic Motorsport – Centro Porsche Verona).

The battle between the two truly came alight in the last round at Imola, with Zendeli taking his first-ever pole position in the GT category but unable to make the best of that good qualifying performance in the races, and Braschi picking up the Rookie win.

“I drove in Vallelunga already, I have to say the area is not the most beautiful, but I like the layout of the circuit, last year I jumped in a car to drive here a bit,” declared Lirim. “Also, the history of the team, they were quite fast here in the past years so I feel confident that for sure we can fight for podiums this weekend. Unfortunately, I had this issue in Imola, and we just fixed it now, but I couldn’t do a lot of laps, so the test day today was a bit wasted, also because there was rain at the end. But I got to do some laps, and we know more or less where we are. Basically, I will try to do the best job I can do this weekend, my aim is to win the Rookie championship, and the rest is a bonus.”

After the pre-weekend test on Thursday afternoon, the fifth round of the Porsche Carrera Cup Italia turns on the green light on Friday 20 September for checks and free practice, scheduled from 15:00 to 16:00. The single-round qualifying on Saturday morning at 9:45 will be decisive for both starting grids of the weekend, while race 1 also starts on Saturday at 16:40. Race 2 completes the challenges on Sunday at 11:30.

Points Championship:

Points Rookies: