A Tough Season Opener at the Sprint Cup in Brands Hatch

Fast Facts – The Press Bulletin
At the season opener of the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup at Brands Hatch, Emil Frey Racing battled with the tight track conditions and a turbulent qualifying. In Race 1, the #14 Ferrari claimed fifth place thanks to a solid team performance, while the #69 finished eleventh. In Race 2, both cars largely maintained their starting positions – ninth for the #14 and eleventh for the #69 in the overall classification. Despite lacking pace in qualifying, both Ferraris impressed in the races and repeatedly gained positions. The weekend was also marked by mourning for Alessandro Zanardi, who passed away on Friday and was honoured with a minute of silence before the start of Race 1.

Press Release 
The GT World Challenge Europe weekend at Brands Hatch opened the Sprint Cup season for Emil Frey Racing with two hotly contested qualifying sessions on Saturday. Konsta Lappalainen was the only driver to secure a strong starting position, lining up fifth on the grid. The remaining Emil Frey Racing drivers found themselves in the midfield – no easy starting point for a race weekend on a short and tight circuit like Brands Hatch.

In the #14 Ferrari, Konsta Lappalainen started from fifth position in the first of two one-hour races on Sunday and held his place at the start. In the opening chaos, Ben Green in the #69 Ferrari initially lost ground at his home race, but as early as lap two a Safety Car – followed by a red flag interruption – brought the field back together.

At the restart, both Emil Frey Racing Ferraris showed strong form and impressive race pace. Konsta Lappalainen was among the first to pit, handing the #14 Ferrari over to new team-mate Matteo Cairoli. However, on his Sprint Cup debut, a pit stop issue cost the team precious seconds. Ben Green, on the other hand, was one of the last drivers to come in and made the most of his extended time on track to gain positions. At the flag, the #14 crossed the line in fifth, while the #69 took eleventh place.

In Race 2, Matteo Cairoli took the wheel of the #14 Ferrari from thirteenth on the grid, while Thierry Vermeulen attacked from seventeenth in the #69. Both made clean starts, and the opening laps passed without major incident. This time the pit stop work was spot-on, with the team delivering a strong performance. Although the race pace was competitive and both cars were able to fight for positions, making progress through the field at Brands Hatch proved difficult. At the end, the #14 secured ninth place, while the #69 crossed the line in eleventh.

The passing of Alessandro Zanardi, who unexpectedly died on Friday at the age of 59, cast a shadow over the race weekend at Brands Hatch – the very venue where the exceptional Italian athlete won two Paralympic gold medals in 2012. On Sunday, a minute of silence was held in his honour before the start of Race 1. Emil Frey Racing extends its deepest condolences to his family and loved ones.

TEAM QUOTES – Emil Frey Racing

Lorenz Frey-Hilti, Team Principal 
"Unfortunately, apart from Konsta, we didn't manage a clean lap in qualifying – and when you start from the midfield on a circuit like Brands Hatch, it's extremely difficult to make things happen. In Race 1, a suboptimal pit stop cost us valuable time; a podium was within reach. Our stint pace was strong, but fighting through from the middle of the pack is just very hard. In Race 2 we executed two clean, quick stops, but then found ourselves, like many others, stuck in traffic. Overall, we did score important points – but we need to take a step forward in qualifying to give ourselves a better starting position."

Jürg Flach, Technical Director 
"The weekend wasn't as successful as we had hoped. There was certainly more potential in both qualifying sessions, but Porsche and Mercedes were very strong, and as everyone knows, it's extremely difficult to make up positions in a race at Brands Hatch. The pace of our cars was good in both races, but unfortunately it wasn't enough to achieve more than two Top-ten finishes."

DRIVER QUOTES – Emil Frey Racing

Matteo Cairoli (Italy) 
"We extracted the maximum from the car this weekend. Even though we've made progress overall, we definitely need to improve in qualifying. That's our goal for the next round!"

Thierry Vermeulen (Netherlands) 
"We had a difficult weekend, and we were still lacking the right pace, which was already visible from our qualifying result. We made some adjustments to the balance and things improved, but I'm disappointed that we weren't where we expected to be. My thanks go to the team for all the hard work everyone puts into the cars."

Ben Green (Great Britain) 
"It was unfortunately a difficult weekend. We gave our best and recovered as well as we could from a challenging qualifying day, but sadly couldn't deliver the results we had hoped for. I'm looking forward to the next round, where I'm confident we'll be more competitive and fighting back at the front."

Konsta Lappalainen (Finland) 
"I think the results are solid for the weekend. We scored points and our race pace was okay too. We just need to improve in qualifying so we can start further up the grid and give ourselves better opportunities."

ABOUT EMIL FREY RACING

Emil Frey Racing is a storied Swiss motorsport team based in Safenwil. Founded in the 1960s on the foundations of the Emil Frey Group, the team can look back on decades of motorsport experience, ranging from single-seater and rally racing to long-distance GT series. Today, Emil Frey Racing competes internationally, currently in both the DTM and the GT World Challenge with the Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo.

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