Mettler: Strong GT3 debut on Bentley 🎥

In his first appearance for Team Lazarus, Yannick Mettler immediately provided a highlight at the Hungaroring: The 30-year-old from Lucerne qualified the Bentley Continental GT3 with start number #26 for the first race as second fastest on the front row of the 17-car field.

Jump into the deep end
Almost everything was new for the Lazarus Racing team and the engineers from M-Sport (Bentley Motorsport entry team) this weekend. As the Continental GT3 had never been in action at the Hungaroring before, there were no empirical values.

The Michelin tires were also new territory. And test drives were hardly possible in recent months due to the current situation.

Yannick Mettler: "In training, we still had a lot of groundwork to do. For me, the track was also new. However, the engineers from Lazarus and M-Sport did a mega job and took us forward in big steps, so I was able to deliver on time for the first qualifying session. A great sense of achievement for the whole team."

Finish behind the safety car
In the first race, Mettler finally handed over the V8 twin-turbo to his teammate Fabrizio Crestani in third position at the pit stop. The Italian was somewhat unlucky during two consecutive safety car phases and lost a position in the restart scrum. As the race also ended behind the safety car after 70 minutes, the duo ultimately narrowly missed out on the podium.

Victory went to Vorarlberg ex-GP driver Christian Klien and Poland's Patrik Krupinski in a Mercedes-AMG ahead of two McLaren duos.

The highlights of race 1 show the Bentley with Yannick Mettler starting from row 1. His teammates in the second Bentley later spin twice. Horrendous is the accident that led to neutralization until the finish.

Too much tire wear
In Sunday qualifying, Crestani initially took sixth place on the grid, but in the race the duo was again unable to quite maintain the pace. There was a lack of experience with tire wear over the distance, so both drivers had to contend with severely degrading tires.

Mettler eventually brought the car home in seventh place, setting the third-fastest race lap in the early stages of his stint.

Better than expected
After the successful debut, the TCR European and World Cup winner of the 2019 24H Series traveled back to Switzerland satisfied.

Yannick Mettler: "It went better than expected because everything was new for us and me. My qualifying lap was mega, but unfortunately the pit stop and the final safety car phase in the first race didn't quite work out for us. With only four test sessions to prepare, it was a super performance from all of us. We're taking a lot of positives with us and are working hard to prepare for the next race weekend at Le Castellet on August 22/23. We're confident that it will pay off soon."

yannickmettler.ch