Dino Zamparelli produced another solid display at the Knockhill circuit on the weekend to finish 2nd place in both encounters, to not only move up to 2nd in the championship standings, but also confirm his title aspirations with two rounds to go.
Saturday Qualifying would always prove to be a tight affair, with a 50 second lap and only 5 corners, all drivers would be gunning for pole position. Zamparelli would qualify on the second row and in 3rd place, 0.060 off the front. He said of qualifying:
"We knew how close it was going to be. The top 8 covered by under 2 tenths of a second. This was, in all honesty, my least favoured circuit, so I knew it would have to pull a couple of miracle laps out. I have never flowed great with Knockhill and that's the way it is. Second row on the grid isn't disastrous as we can fight from there."
Round 10 saw the Bristol driver leap into 2nd place after a good rolling start launch, and a dive up the inside of turn 1. From there, he set some quick laps to stay in touch with the leader, but with no change throughout the 30 minutes, Zamparelli would cross the line in 2nd place. He said:
"It was a tough race as we didn't quite have the balance in the race unfortunately. I made a strong start and went into turn 1 really committed. I moved straight into 2nd place and then set about catching and putting pressure on Dan (Cammish). There were a couple of times we got really close with backmarkers and so on, but we didn't have the ultimate pace to win so we have to change the car and go again for race 2."
Round 11 proved to be an exciting affair with the top 2 in the race clashing on the penultimate lap, causing the title battle to ignite. Zamparelli made yet another lightning getaway, this time from 4th position off the line. He moved straight into 3rd place and was hooked on to the rear bumpers of the two leaders.
The top 3 would yo yo throughout the race, but it was on the penultimate lap that it all kicked off. The leader, Charlie Eastwood, was struggling, and his team mate Dan Cammish went for a move on the straight, only to be ushered off the circuit by his team mate, causing the latter to crash out into the barriers.
This meant that leading onto the final lap, Zamparelli found himself in 2nd place now and challenging for the lead side by side with Eastwood. A switch back move into turn 1 looked on for a moment, only for the door to be closed and a short 45 seconds later, Zamparelli crossed the line a close 2nd place behind championship rival Eastwood.
Dino explains: "That was a bit of a crazy one. I'm not sure Eastwood will/should get away with what he did to Dan. In my opinion, he's just fired him off the circuit and caused him to crash. I had this at the back of my mind onto the last lap and thought he would be in for a penalty. So I stayed cool and finished 2nd place which is not a bad result round here.
"A couple of 2nd place finishes is decent at one of my weakest circuits, and I'm really excited to go to the final two rounds at Silverstone and Brands Hatch. The car and myself will be super strong I'm sure, and we're right in the thick of this championship battle. So we'll be pushing and pushing right until the very end."
Rounds 12 & 13 of the Porsche Carrera Cup Championship take place at Silverstone on the 17th of September 2017.