VLN: Swiss successes subject to reservation
HARD PENALTY FOR HIRSCHI At the fourth round of the VLN championship at the Nürburgring, the stewards cracked down on yellow card offenders. Jonathan Hirschi got the worst of it. Several Swiss achieved podium finishes, including once again Yannick Mettler in the BMW M4 GT4. On July 7, Jonathan Hirschi became the first Swiss racer ever to break through the [...]
Jonathan Hirschi became the first Swiss racing driver ever to break the eight-minute barrier for the 24.358km combination of the Nürburgring short circuit and Nordschleife during practice for the fourth VLN race of 2018 on July 7. In the BMW M6 GT3, the 32-year-old from Neuchâtel managed a best time of 7'58.878 minutes.
Hirschi, however, was not able to enjoy his supposed second place on the grid alongside pole setter Norbert Siedler in the Porsche 911 GT3-R for long. Because he had demonstrably exceeded the prescribed maximum speed of 120 at a yellow-flag passage, he was excluded from the entire event.
In addition, Hirschi's so-called Nordschleife license will be revoked. The DMSB sports commissioners also expressly pointed out that there may be a further punishment by the sports court. The Frenchman attracted positive attention just three weeks ago with his second place in the LMP2 class at Le Mans.
Yannick Mettler's winning streak continues
As several similar cases are still being investigated during the race and there could be further penalties for various yellow flag offenders, the result of the fourth championship round remains provisional. It remains to be seen whether further Swiss drivers will be affected.
Yannick Mettler has one hearing already behind him and no longer doubts his renewed podium finish in the SP10 class of GT4 cars. The Lucerne native captured pole position in his eight-car class for the first time with the BMW M4 and defended the lead in the first half of the four-hour race against an equally fast Mercedes-AMG GT.
His German regular partner Heiko Eichenberg also fought back successfully, but had to refuel for longer at the final pit stop and also had to contend with severely weakening tires.
Mettler is nevertheless satisfied with second place, which puts the duo in eighth intermediate place in the championship as the fourth-best team of all those classified in the 2018 VLN.
Yannick Mettler: "Heiko and I gave everything today, but in the end we were narrowly beaten at the finish. In the end, a short unscheduled pit stop for resetting the electronics and the yellow phases was probably decisive. But that's part of racing."
Class victory for Bern Peugeot team
This time there was a Swiss class win by Max Langenegger and Bernhard Badetscher in SP2T. After the Bernese duo had suffered a technical defect while leading the third race, their Peugeot RCZ Cup ran flawlessly this time.
The Porsche Cayman GT4 CS of Ivan Jacoma and his German partner Kai Riemer finished just 95 seconds behind the winners of the Cup 3 class, which was rewarded with second place. Also finishing second on a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup was Willy Hüppi in the SP7 class.
Second TCR podium for Basel-Landschaft Honda team
In the TCR class, no less than two of the seven touring cars were manned only by Swiss drivers. As in the previous race, Roger Vögeli, Roland Schmid and Frédéric Yerly drove to a good third place in the Honda Civic Type R of Garage Schmid from Reinach BL. Due to the unfavorable classification of the Civic, their performance is all the more remarkable.
Almost seven minutes behind their compatriots, Sandro Rothenberger and Edy Kamm finished fourth in class in their Seat Leon Cupra TCR. Ruedi Rhyn's Opel Astra TCR, on the other hand, fell by the wayside.
Finally, Rahel Frey with an Audi R8 LMS of a German private team finished third among seven competitors in the SP8 class.
Overall victory went to the Frikadelli Racing Team with Norbert Siedler and Lance David Arnold, who started from pole.
Siedler is a member of the Emil Frey Lexus Team in the Blancpain GT Series, which is currently preparing intensively for the 24 Hours of Spa on July 28/29. So things could continue as successfully for the Austrian...
