Strong end to the season for Emil Frey Racing
GT-SPORT Last weekend, Emil Frey Racing was on the road twice: In Barcelona, the Jaguar team shone in the last Blancpain GT endurance race and in Monza, the Lexus squad from Safenwil preserved its title chance in the International GT Open. After a lot of bad luck and disappointment in the previous races, Emil Frey Racing showed itself to be a winner on Sunday at the last round of the Blancpain GT [...]
After a lot of bad luck and disappointment in the previous races, Emil Frey Racing showed its best side on Sunday at the final round of the Blancpain GT Series. After a chaotic qualifying, the two Jaguar GT3s from Safenwil convinced with their performance in the three-hour race.
The two blue felines saw the chequered flag in 10th and 11th place, just 100 seconds behind the winning team. Jonathan Hirschi from Neuchâtel thus joined Marco Seefried (D) and Christian Klien (A) in scoring the first championship point in the top professional category.
The second car, which had also finished tenth in the second Endurance GT race at Silverstone, followed just behind with newcomer Alex Fontana from Ticino, regular driver Stéphane Ortelli from Monaco and Norbert Siedler (A).
Team boss Lorenz Frey, who for once did not take the wheel himself, was correspondingly satisfied and relieved.
Lorenz Frey: "We have continuously improved again this year and were able to show once more that we are quite capable of driving our own Jaguar GT3 at the very front of this fiercely contested championship. We've had a lot of bad luck over the year, so it's all the more pleasing to achieve this reconciliatory result. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the drivers and the entire team for a good season. They always stayed motivated and gave their best."
And this is how it feels to drive the Jaguar GT3 from Emil Frey Racing, recorded in free practice with Stéphane Ortelli at the wheel:
https://www.facebook.com/EmilFreyJaguarRacing/videos/1525441244161041
Success unfortunately has its price
The Safenwil team experienced a difficult weekend with the Lexus RC F GT3 at the penultimate double round of the International GT Open in Monza. The third win of the season and a third place last time in Silverstone had a downside...
According to the regulations, Philipp Frommenwiler and Albert Costa (E) were given a success ballast of 20 kg in the car, and there was also a noticeable intervention in the aerodynamics as well as a time penalty of 20 seconds in the first and 5 in the second race.
The Thurgau native and the Spaniard made the best of the situation by finishing 10th and 5th from the back of the field of 25 cars. They thus preserved their title chances at the finale in Barcelona at the end of October, where they will be allowed to compete again in relief. Since Costa is always strong on his home track, anything is still possible then.
