Emil Frey Racing expecting difficult weekend in Barcelona

• Races 11 and 12 of the International GT Open in Barcelona (Spain)
• Home Race for Albert Costa Balboa
• Emil Frey Racing with large time handicap in the first race

Safenwil (Switzerland), 16th September 2019:

Last week, Emil Frey Racing secured many important points on their way to fight for the championship titles in the International GT Open Series. The Swiss managed to extend their lead in both the drivers and teams championship standings, following two victories and two podium finishes with both their Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO in Silverstone. This coming weekend, the second-to-last round of the championship is taking place in Barcelona at the Circuit de Catalunya, but the Lamborghini squad is facing a large time handicap due to their successes from Silverstone. Emil Frey Racing already took to the 4.655-meter-long Grand Prix Circuit, which is located outside Barcelona, testing their then-new Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO in the winter months. Not only are the existing data and analysis an important help for the team, but Albert Costa Balboa will also show an extra portion motivation at this home race being the local hero and title aspirant. Despite being already nominated as the favorites, the 17 points advantage for Spaniard Albert Costa Balboa and the Italian Giacomo Altoè can be diminished with one average weekend. Emil Frey Racing has got a lead of 12 points in the team standings, closely followed by the competition. In any case, the next two races will be decisive for the title win – it remains exciting. The second-to-last race weekend of the International GT Open will go underway on Friday, 20th September 2019 with two free practice sessions. On Saturday, 21st September 2019, the first qualifying takes place at 10:55 am, with the 70-minute race following from 04:10 pm. The second qualifying will start at 09:30 am on Sunday, 22nd September 2019 and the final and second race for one hour at 2:20 pm. All practice sessions, qualifyings, and races are broadcast live via https://www.youtube.com/user/GTOPENseries

Team Quotes

Lorenz Frey-Hilti, Team Principal Emil Frey Racing

“Following the successful weekend at Silverstone we are now going to face a difficult task for the whole team with the next meeting. Although we have tested with the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO at the race track of Barcelona in the winter, and despite having the relevant data and a good performance, we have a large time handicap for Saturday and Sunday. You never know where you will end up in a race like that. We are putting all our focus on having an impeccable weekend and we will see, what will be possible despite the time handicaps.”

Jürg Flach, Technical Director Emil Frey Racing “The weekend in Silverstone could not have been more successful for us as a team. We are now heading to the second-to-last race meeting in Barcelona. Due to our good results from Silverstone, we are looking to have a time handicap of 15 seconds for the number 14 and 30 seconds for the number 63 in the first race on Saturday. Nevertheless, we are heading optimistically into the next races and will try to extend our lead of 12 points in the team’s championship.”

Driver Quotes Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO #14

Norbert Siedler (AUT) “The upcoming weekend in Barcelona will not be easy for us, as we have a time handicap on both cars for the 70-minute race on Saturday. But we hope to be able to fully attack again on Sunday.” Mikael Grenier (CAN) “The team did a great job at the last round and we will continue to work hard to extend our lead in the team standings in Barcelona. But it will be a difficult weekend, especially the race on Saturday as we have 15 seconds on our car. Therefore, our main focus is on the race on Sunday where we hope to end up on the podium once again.”

Driver Quotes Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO #63

Albert Costa Balboa (ESP) “Silverstone was just great! Now we remain very focused and take the full potential. I am very much looking forward to my home race, but for sure we have bad luck with the handicap. But we are a strong team, Giacomo is getting better and better and I am optimistic, that we will have a good weekend. It will be difficult to take the victory with the handicap, but everything is possible, and we will experience an exciting weekend.” Giacomo Altoè (ITA) “We managed to take the full points home in Silverstone and that was important. Barcelona will be very difficult, but we will give our best. The car is good, the performance as well and we have all the features to achieve another good result.”