The Italian-Canadian driver showed strong pace on the technical Dutch circuit, narrowly missing out on a top-five qualifying result while continuing his adaptation programme with the Target Competition Porsche 911 Cup (992.2), despite two races affected by contact.
Zandvoort (NL), May 25th 2026 – Aldo Festante completed another intense and constructive weekend in the 2026 Sixt Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland, contesting the third round of the season at the technical Zandvoort circuit together with Target Competition.
On the Dutch track set among the North Sea dunes, the Italian-Canadian driver continued his adaptation programme aboard the #28 Porsche 911 Cup (992.2), focusing primarily on mileage, understanding the car and race pace management following the recent back-to-back events at Imola and Spa-Francorchamps.
The weekend showed encouraging signs from the very first sessions. Festante consistently remained inside the top ten during free practice before delivering an excellent performance in Qualifying 1, where he secured sixth place with a time of 1:36.564, narrowly missing a top-five result.
Qualifying 2 proved more complicated. Despite an even stronger pace and a best lap of 1:36.524, Festante was heavily affected by traffic during the decisive laps and could do no better than 17th on the grid, a result that did not reflect the real potential shown throughout the weekend.
In Race 1, the Target Competition driver immediately demonstrated strong pace, but contact compromised the outcome of the race and he eventually crossed the finish line in ninth position. Race 2 ended prematurely following another contact while Festante was recovering positions after an excellent start from the back of the grid.
Aldo Festante:
“It was a weekend that, like Spa, mainly had the objective of completing as many laps as possible and continuing to learn the track. Here, however, we had already tested during the winter, so we started from a more solid base and that was clear immediately,” commented Festante.
We were consistently inside the top ten in free practice and narrowly missed the top five in Q1. The race pace was also very positive, even if contact compromised the result in Race 1. In Race 2, despite starting further back, we managed to make a very strong start and recover positions, once again before contact affected our race.
From a results perspective it was perhaps not the most important weekend, but in terms of the work completed we are very satisfied: we completed many laps, tested different solutions and gathered very useful information. Overall, the balance is definitely positive.”
The next event on the calendar will now be the most anticipated round of the 2026 Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup season at the Monaco circuit on June 4-7.