Ombra Racing’s Lirim Zendeli returns to Italy this weekend for the half-way point of the season in his Porsche Carrera Cup Italia campaign, hoping the experience accumulated recently in the Mobil 1 Supercup races will take him further to the front in the domestic series.
The third double-header races of the six-round Cup takes place at the 5.245 km Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello in the heart of the Tuscan countryside and the two races on the weekend schedule promise to be incandescent, not only because of the expected scorching temperatures, but also because of the very nature of the racing at the wheel of the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup machines.
The MIM-contracted driver has been on the receiving end of some rough treatment recently, especially in Austria, but this sort of racing is all good experience for a GT rookie like Zendeli.
The man to beat as always is the reigning champion Larry Ten Voorde (Enrico Fulgenzi Racing) while other protagonists are sure to be Keagan Masters (Q8 Hi Perform) and Francesco Braschi (Dinamic Motorsport), who is contending the title of Best Rookie with Lirim.
“I think Mugello was always nice to me,” declared Lirim. “We’ve done a Formula 3 pole position here and I’ve been on the podium with Formula Regional. I haven’t been here very often but the times I have been here were great. Now I need to get used to the track with the Porsche, it’s a different type of driving, with different lines, curbs and everything, but I’m sure that I’ll be able to do that pretty quickly. We will see today in free practice, but I think our speed is there. I’m really looking forward to the Mugello weekend, it’s been a lot of international racing recently and after this it’s going be Budapest, and then Spa so I’m also looking forward to rest for a couple of days!”
After a one-day test session on Thursday, round 3 action kicks off on Friday 12 July with free practice in the afternoon. Starting grids for the two races will be decided in Saturday morning qualifying, with race 1 at 15.50. Race 2 completes the weekend on Sunday at 12.20.
OVERALL: 1. Ten Voorde 106; 2. Masters 86; 3. Braschi 49; 4. Zendeli 46; 5. Klein 43; 6. Cerqui 37; etc.
ROOKIE CLASSIFICATION: 1. Braschi 49 points; 2. Zendeli 46; 3. Gregor 16; 4. Olivieri 3; 5. Pujatti 2.
