Motorsport: Two podium places for Rahel Frey
Rahel Frey returned to Switzerland from Malaysia with two third-place finishes in the third Audi R8 LMS Cup event. This put her back in the circle of title contenders. After the disappointing weekend in Thailand, where she finished with 50 kilos of success ballast on board her Audi R8 due to her victory at Shanghai [...]
After the disappointing weekend in Thailand, where she narrowly missed Superpole qualifying due to her victory at Shanghai with 50 kilos of success ballast on board her Audi R8 LMS and was therefore unable to intervene in the fight for the top positions, Rahel Frey was looking for the connection to the front again at Sepang - and found it. For the first race, she put her lighter car on the front row of the grid alongside Edoardo Mortara. However, both Swiss drivers were beaten by local hero Alex Yoong, who never relinquished the lead on the GP circuit outside Kuala Lumpur after a lightning start. In the second race, Edoardo Mortara and Alessio Picariello (B) fought a great duel which the Swiss, who starts for Italy, decided in his favor: "The traction control failed on my car. In this heat, this was the toughest race of my career." Rahel Frey again finished third, one second behind the leader.
Important points before the second half of the season
After dropping from the top of the standings to fifth intermediate place in Thailand, the Solothurn-based racer surged back to third place in the championship: "The podium finishes were okay. What was important were the points. It was great to watch the battle between Edo and Alessio up close." At the halfway point after six of twelve rounds, Alex Yoong and Alessio Piccariello are ahead with 95 points each. A 20-point gap is not unassailable for the Swiss, but she will need to finish on the podium again at the next event in Korea at the end of September to keep her title chances alive in the hotly contested championship.
www.audir8lmscup.com
www.rahelfrey.ch
Photos: Jean-Pierre Froidevaux, Archive
