24 Hours of Spa: Disappointment prevails
GT-SPORT The strongest Swiss drivers were unable to take advantage of their good starting position. Only Edoardo Mortara and Raffaele Marciello in a Mercedes driving for Italy and the Ferrari team led by Ronnie Kessel from Ticino achieved a podium finish in the 24-hour race in Belgium. The biggest disappointment was experienced by Emil Frey Jaguar Racing. Both Emil Frey Jaguar G3s of Lorenz Frey/Stéphane Ortelli/Albert Costa [...]
Emil Frey Jaguar Racing experienced the biggest disappointment. Both Emil Frey Jaguar G3s of Lorenz Frey/Stéphane Ortelli/Albert Costa and Jonathan Hirschi/Christian Klien/Marco Seefried retired on Saturday evening with drive defects after a good performance up to that point. The exact cause of this will be determined after their return to Safenwil.
"The speed would have been there. It's very disappointing," sighed driver and team boss Lorenz Frey. "We had completed our 15-hour private endurance test without the slightest problem. And here we were out after the first few hours. It's a huge shame for everyone in the team and all the drivers, who had prepared extremely well for this."
Disappointment was also evident in the words of Nico Müller on Sunday evening after the biggest and toughest GT3 race in the world (63 teams). The #1 Audi R8 LMS of René Rast, Antonio Garcia and the Bernese driver was still battling for the lead until midday on Sunday. However, after an unsuccessful attempt by Rast to outbrake the leading Mercedes, Müller's DTM team-mate made contact with it, causing both to spin.
The pit drive-through penalty imposed for this, the second in the race, set the Audi back somewhat. "What's more, the car didn't work properly after that. We were fighting a bit with blunt weapons," reported Müller. A time-consuming problem at the last refueling stop then put paid to any hopes of a podium finish. Müller finished on the podium in 2015 (2nd) and 2016 (3rd), but it was no longer enough for more than 6th place under these circumstances.
Marcel Fässler moved his #5 Audi, shared with André Lotterer and Dries Vanthoor, up from 21st on the grid to P14 in the early stages. A problem with the brakes cost so much time on Saturday evening that the trio lost four laps. The race to catch up ended with the chequered flag in eleventh place.
Class victory for Kessel Racing
Nevertheless, there was a partial Swiss success. Edoardo Mortara and Raffaele Marciello, who compete under the Italian flag, brought their Mercedes AMG GT3 home in third place after a long lead. Victory went to the Audi R8 LMS of the French team Saintéloc with Christopher Haase, Markus Winkelhock and Jules Gounon.
The Bentley Continental of Maxime Soulet, Vincent Abril and Andy Soucek crossed the finish line in second place, just 11.8 seconds behind. The top six teams all covered 546 laps (3824 km).
There was a Swiss victory for Kessel Racing. Marco Zanuttini, Jacques Duyver, David Perel and Niki Cadei won the Am class for non-professional drivers with a three-lap lead in the Ferrari 488 GT3 prepared and entered by the team from Ticino.
The retirement list shows just how tough and difficult the 69th edition of the Spa 24 Hours was, even though it only rained briefly during the night. Of the 63 teams that started, only 35 saw the chequered flag at 16:30 on Sunday! 23 cars retired in the first half of the race due to some hair-raising accidents and technical defects.
