Dino Zamparelli scored an emphatic victory at Autodromo Nazionale Monza in the first race of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB weekend in Italy after avoiding first corner chaos at the start of the race.
Following an impressive performance by 17-year-old Porsche GB 2018 / 2019 Junior Daniel Harper in qualifying, the young Irishman lined up for pole position on the grid with JTR team-mate Lewis Plato alongside him. Zamparelli would start from third on the grid.
As the lights went green the field roared away with Plato jumping in to the lead as Harper was slow to start, with the field barreling towards Rettifilio, Zamparelli had made it through to second.
Harper followed Zamparelli closely and was caught out when the Italian moved out of the way to take up the racing line, Harper carried too much speed in to the corner and speared in to the side of his JTR team-mate Plato, taking them both out of the race.
Further down the grid James Kaye took to the grass to avoid the bunched up field, spinning out of control and collecting Jamie Orton, who in turn collided with Will Bratt. Kaye was the only one who would come out of the collsions unscathed as the four other cars were retired.
Credit: Porsche / Dan Bathie
Following a safety car period to recover the stricken cars Zamparelli lead the field away on the restart with George Gamble and Tio Ellinas following closely. Pro-Am leader Seb Perez was in an impressive fifth place overall with Esmee Hawkey and Greg Caton giving chase. Shamus Jennings lead the Am field away with Peter Kyle-Henney and Peter Mangion in second and third.
As the race wore on, Zamparelli and Gamble traded fastest lap times as Tom Wrigley and Tio Ellinas battled for the final podium spot. Further down the grid a train of four cars – Greg Caton, Dan Vaughan, Shamus Jennings and Peter Kyle-Henney battled it out for Pro-Am and Am glory.
With 10 minutes on the clock the battle for second place was heating up, Gamble, Ellinas and Wrigley lapped within half a second of each other. The fight for the final Pro-Am podium spot was also red hot as Vaughan and Caton went side by side through Variante Ascari, with Vaughan coming out on top.
As the clock counted down, Zamparelli had pulled out a gap of five seconds over Gample with Ellinas in close contention.
Credit: Porsche / Dan Bathie
As Gamble defended in to Curva Parabolica he outbraked himself and headed in to the gravel trap, Ellinas pounced in to second place as Wrigley followed in to third and Gamble dropped to fourth place as he recovered on to the circuit.
Seb Perez lead the Pro-Am competitors home for victory with Esmee Hawkey picking up an impressive second palce and Dan Vaughan on the final podium spot.
In the Am category Peter Kyle-Henney took the victory ahead of Iain Dockerill and Shamus Jennings.
Following the race Dan Harper was disqualified from the final results and picked up four points on his race licence along with losing eight championship points. James Kaye was also penalised with two points on his race licence and fined two championship points.
