Marcel Fässler: Second Audi podium in Italy
THIRD IN MUGELLO For Marcel Fässler, the second race for Audi Sport in the Italian GT Championship ended with a podium as well. Next week, the big appearance at the Spa 24 Hours will follow. To support its customer Bar Baruch in the Italian GT Championship, Audi Sport delegates various factory drivers. For the second time after the season opener at the end of [...]
To support its customer Bar Baruch in the Italian GT Championship, Audi Sport delegates various factory drivers. For the second time after the season opener at Imola at the end of April, Marcel Fässler took his turn as the Israeli's partner and again contributed to a podium.
Time penalties as a handicap
At the previous race at Misano, DTM driver Jamie Green took turns with Baruch at the wheel of the Audi R8 LMS. Together, they clinched a victory and third place.
According to the regulations, this meant a 20-second longer stop at the first driver change at Mugello to even out the odds. After one hour, the duo of Baruch and Fässler could therefore not finish much higher than sixth.
In the second race, the handicap was still five seconds. Starting ninth, Fässler handed over the Audi in sixth place. Baruch then made up four more places.
Unfortunately, the Israeli moved away from his pit by nine tenths of a second too early, which with multiplier 3 resulted in a time penalty of 2.7 seconds. As a result, the Audi Sport Italia team dropped from second to third position.
Help in the fight for the championship
The second race win went to GT factory driver Giancarlo Fisichella and Ferrari customer Stefano Gai in a 488 Italia GT3 Evo, who were able to go through without a handicap after a zero in Misano. Gai leads the championship after four races or eight rounds with 95 points ahead of Baruch with 86.
Therefore, Marcel Fässler draws a positive conclusion after his second podium in Italy.
Marcel Fässler: " With regard to Ben Baruch's championship, it was a good weekend. For me it was important that I could help him."
Table lead for Alain Valente
In the Super GT Cup sub-ranking, Alain Valente from Berne leads the standings, together with the Italian Pietro Perolini. Unfortunately, this class consists of only two or three Lamborghini Huracan cars from Antonelli Motorsport.
The duo had to settle for second place at Mugello, but previously scored four wins over their teammates at Imola and Misano.
Focal point 24 hours spa
Six weeks after Le Mans with Corvette, Marcel Fässler (and several other Swiss) is facing the next big race. At the Spa 24 Hours, the man from Schwyz, together with Stuart Leonard and Daniel Serra, will form one of eleven teams with an Audi R8 LMS.
From the FIA classification, however, the Briton is only considered a Silver and the Brazilian a Gold driver. However, alongside cars with three platinum drivers like the Audi R8 of Nico Müller/Robin Frjins/René Rast, the trio with Fässler is more of an outsider in the world's strongest GT3 field of the year.
Nothing is impossible, but the 2007 winner (then with a Phoenix Racing Corvette) remains realistic.
Marcel Fässler: "Daniel and Stuart are two good drivers, but in terms of the lineup we'll hardly have the pace to be right at the front. The goal would be a top five result. We have a reliably fast car, so it's important that we do a solid job as well. If more comes of it, all the better..."
We'll be looking at other Swiss teams and drivers at the Spa 24 Hours, which is being held for the 70th time, over the course of the next week.
