Porsche Cup: Being fast is not everything
RECOVERY STATE Francesco Fenici's dominance in the GT4 Challenge of the Porsche Sports Cup Suisse would have continued at Imola. But on the endurance track, victory belatedly went to Laurent Misbach. With his Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR, Francesco Fenici took pole position, the fastest lap and an unchallenged start-finish victory already in the sprint race [...]
With his Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR, Francesco Fenici took maximum points in the sprint race with pole position, the fastest lap and an unchallenged start-finish victory - much to the chagrin of Laurent Misbach.
The reigning runner-up also rode unchallenged to second behind the Roman. Misbach proved his speed with a personal best lap time that separated him from Fenici by just a tenth of a second.
Fight behind the top duo
Behind him, the Italian "Boga," who starts under a pseudonym, was only briefly ousted from third place by Paul Surand, who as usual is eager for a duel. Surand fell back to fifth position in the course of this duel, but worked his way past Massimo Salamanca again.
The reigning circuit champion of the Porsche Drivers Competition did not let this discourage him, however, and used the remaining time to move up to fifth place.
Sixth place went to Patrick Schetty, who thus won the class classification for the 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport. Ninth place went to Thomas Herbst, the winner of the previous-generation Cayman GT4 Clubsport.
Fenici first at the finish line...
In the Endurance race over the 100-mile distance, too, it initially looked like another success for Francesco Fenici. The 31-year-old had won qualifying for the GT4 Challenge but had to give way to Paul and Corentin Surand after the start - until they dropped to the back of the field on the 18th of 33 laps.
This put Fenici back in the lead, closely followed for the most part by Laurent Misbach. This picture continued until the finish.
... but the victory goes to Misbach
Nevertheless, Misbach was able to celebrate his first win of the season. The Italian had completed his mandatory pit stop a touch too quickly and was given three penalty seconds for this. This relegated the GT4 Challenge championship leader to second position.
Patrick Schetty and Thomas Brauch suffered a similar fate in the classification for 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport cars. Both were subsequently given three penalty seconds each for pit stops that were too short. This benefited Renzo Kressig, who moved up from third place to class winner. Among the participants with the previous-generation Cayman GT4, Thomas Herbst won by one lap.
Francesco Fenici: "In endurance qualifying I only had time for a single lap, which was also a new challenge for me mentally. I was all the more pleased with the pole position. I'm still learning with every kilometer. The time penalty in the endurance race is annoying, but it shows once again that every little mistake pays off."
Peter Gafner the most regular again
Being fast alone is not enough to win in the Porsche Drivers Competition Suisse - Peter Gafner proved this once again in Imola. With his 911 GT3, the 2018 Porsche Drivers Competition champion didn't set any lap records, but he drove the most consistently.
In fact, over nine of ten laps he was just 1.66 seconds off his own average time. This meant he was exactly 0.03 seconds more precise than Fabio Resico, who again had to admit defeat to the former champion in his 911 GT3 RS, as in Le Castellet.
Third place went to Nicolas Garski ahead of Alain Dutronc and Virgil Keller. Robert Schwaller, who had been leading the standings since his first place at the season opener in Hockenheim, again had a difficult day and only finished in ninth position. He dropped to third place in the intermediate standings behind Gafner and Resico.
Ranking Porsche Cup Suisse Imola
