Category: Press KitRINDONE WINS AND GRABS CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD – Porsche Sprint Challenge Suisse
Stunning performance from Gabriel Rindone, who gets his first win of 2021 and overtakes championship contenders. Solid performance from Shintaro Akatsu, scoring his career best result after almost one year away from racing.Jesi, 08/09/2021
Summer break came in immediately after Enrico Fulgenzi’s first podium in Porsche Carrera Cup Italia, and it stopped with the fourth round of Porsche Sprint Challenge Suisse, which was held at the Hockenheimring.
As usual, the racing weekend began with Thursday’s free practice session, influenced by low temperatures and low grip on track which didn’t allow the drivers to show their values fair and square before Saturday’s races.
Gabriel Rindone got us used to heroic drives this year, and our soldier still managed to let us amazed during this weekend: he raced two races in the same weekend, also competing in Nurburgrung’s round of Lamborghini SuperTrofeo at the Nurburgring on Friday and Sunday.
Friday’s practice session saw Enrico Fulgenzi putting down a lot of laps on Rindone’s #291. The aim has been both to find the best set-up and balance for the car and to give Shintaro Akatsu some “Follow me” leading and chasing laps, in order to teach to the japanese the best tips and lines to master the Hockenheimring.
It all comes down to the big, final day: Saturday. Morning’s qualifying session gave the EF Racing drivers some nice starting positions: Akatsu’s #277 gained the seventh slot on the grid, scoring his weekend’ personal best and showing the amount of progress made by Shintaro during his season with Enrico Fulgenzi Racing. Gabby Rindone has been held in traffic during his fastest attempt, but still managed to gain a fourth slot on the grid which put him in a nice position for his podium hunt.
Both the drivers have been really solid during Race 1, they both capitalized on their opponents’ mistakes or mechanical failures and gained positions from this. Shintaro came fifth under checquered, with Rindone gaining a stunning P2 on the podium.
Also Race Two has been a showcase of both the cars’ and the drivers’ solidness: a gumble in turn one saw a couple of cars spinning and losing components on track, and both Akatsu and Rindone survived the thing gaining positions. During the first laps of the race Rindone had a nice battle on track with his championship contender Axel Blom, who was overtaken and then sadly crashed being forced to retire from the race. Gabby had then a showreel race, completely alone on track and able to hammer on his fast pace. Gabby finally won his first race with Enrico Fulgenzi Racing! Shintaro has been defending his place for all race length, without any mistakes or wrong moves, and he finally scored his career’s best result with a P4.
Championship’s standing now gets very interesting for Enrico Fulgenzi Racing’s drivers: Gabriel Rindone flies on top of the leaderbord, with Axel Blom 15 points down. This is an unbelieavable place to be for Gabby, considering that he started the season as injured and he now has the chance to administrate his point lead during the final two rounds! Ray Calvin keeps his third place tight; the Canadian was leader in the championship after three rounds, but sadly had to withdraw from his campaign. He still has a solid bunch of points in his pocket, which could put him in a good position at the end of the season. Shintaro Akatsu is now 12th in the standings, bringing home a lot of useful points. He obviously doesn’t have any kind of championship goals, as he couldn’t have been racing in the first half of the season.
The fight is on; there are two races left in the calendar and they are both on italian soil (Mugello and Misano); this means that the Enrico Fulgenzi Racing drivers are going to have Enrico Fulgenzi’s endless experience on italian track by their side as an advantage.
Before the team goes back fighting for the championship, there is another event: Carrera Cup Italia is back in Imola and is set to be Enrico Fulgenzi’s attempt to improve his podium finish scored in Imola. Gabriel Rindone is also joining back the Carrera Cup Italia crew, eager to get on the podium after an unlucky double P4 scored in Mugello’s Round 2.
