Silverstone: Great day for the Swiss teams
WIN AND RANK 3 What a day for the Swiss GT3 teams! A Vantage GT3 from Aston Martin St. Gallen won the second round of the Blancpain Endurance Series in England. And Emil Frey Racing put a Lexus on the big podium for the first time. But that was quick. With the Aston Martin Vantage V12 from R-Motorsport, Matthieu [...]
That was fast. With the Aston Martin Vantage V12 from R-Motorsport, Matthieu Vaxiviere (F), Jake Dennis (GB) and Nicki Thiim (DK) made their mark on the 3-hour race at Silverstone, the second round of the Blancpain GT Endurance Series. Only the Mercedes-AMG GT3, which later finished second, temporarily took the lead after the two pit stops.
R-Motorsport is the sporting arm of Aston Martin St. Gallen. Co-owners and operators are the two sporty, ambitious physicians Dr. Andreas Baenziger and Dr. Florian Kamelger. In just their second factory-supported outing, they thus outstripped the other and long established Swiss team, Emil Frey Racing.
Again both Lexus from Emil Frey Racing in the points
The Safenwil-based team also put in its best performance to date with the Lexus RC F GT3, which has been in use since 2018. At the last race at Brands Hatch, which was part of the GT Sprint Series, the two teams secured the first top ten results and points, and now Stéphane Ortelli, Markus Palttala and Norbert Siedler even made it onto the podium with the #14.
Starting third among 50 (!) competitors, they brought their Lexus home in third place. In a heart-stopping final, Siedler had to fend off the fastest Audi R8, but the Austrian did not relinquish third place.
The second Lexus #114 of Christian Klien, Albert Costa and Marco Seefried also finished in the points in ninth place. Problems with an impact wrench prevented an even better classification.
Nevertheless, team boss Lorenz Frey expressed his satisfaction after the first podium with the Japanese brand.
Lorenz Frey: "Based on last year's experience in the GT Open, we knew that Silverstone would suit us as a track. However, no one in the team really believed that we would win a podium. In the first few races we still had problems with the changeover to the Pirelli tires, but we've since developed the car in the right direction. It's great to be able to show what a super car Lexus has provided us with."
Failure for the fast Jaguar
The only downer was that, as at the opening race in Monza in mid-April, the team's own Emil Frey Jaguar was the fastest car in the Silver Cup. Until the last pit stop, Alex Fontana, Adrian Zaugg and Mikael Grenier were in the lead in this classification.
Unfortunately, the rear right wheel nut was damaged during the last pit stop, which led to the retirement. Technical Director Jürg Flach explains the reason.
Jürg Flach: "The race pace was good so far, except that we had to schedule Zaugg and Grenier's pit stop one lap earlier, which meant we had to execute at the same time as the team next to us. As a result, we had to take an angled pit stop position, which severely impaired the wheel change. In the process, the wheel nut on the rear right wheel was damaged, which could not be repaired even at the second stop and resulted in the retirement. Despite everything, it was a great weekend for us with the good placings."
The positions of the other Swiss: P12 for Marcel Fässler in a WRT Audi R8, P17 for Rolf Ineichen in a Grasser Racing Lamborghini Huracan that has been slowed down by BoP, P22 for Jeffrey Schmidt in an Attempto Racing Audi R8, P23 and 2nd place in the Silver Cup for Patric Niederhauser in a Reiter Young Stars Lamborghini Gallardo.
Adrian Amstutz (42nd) on a Lamborghini Huracan and Adrian Zaugg/Alex Fontana (44th) on the Emil Frey Jaguar retired early and were included in the classification based on the distance covered...,
