Disappointing weekend for Emil Frey Racing at Sprint-Cup at Magny-Cours

Magny-Cours – August 26th, 2024

Emil Frey Racing suffered a serious setback in the fight for the championship title after two disappointing races at the fourth round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup Powered by AWS in Magny-Cours. After a terrific Pole Position by Ben Green in the #14 Ferrari 296 GT3, everything looked set for a top result, but a contact with an opponent through no fault of his own meant that a strong points finish was not possible. The team from Switzerland now has two races left at the final round in Barcelona in October to achieve the maximum for this season.

Race 1 - Saturday, 24th August 2024
Ben Green secured his second Pole Position of the year for the night race after Brands Hatch in the #14 Ferrari 296 GT3. The Emil Frey Racing sister car with the number 69 was qualified in tenth place by Giacomo Altoè. 

At the start, Ben Green led the field with a comfortable lead of just under half a second over the #32 BMW. As darkness slowly set in, the battle for first place came to a head from lap 8 onwards. Five laps later, the #32 BMW overtook the #14 Ferrari. But the over-motivated Daniel Harper in the #991 BMW also wanted to benefit from the overtaking maneuver and pushed Ben Green into the gravel, with the Englishman dropping back to ninth place. 

After the pitstops, both Emil Frey Racing Ferrari showed a great recovery, especially the #69, which crossed the finishing line in fourth place with the fastest race lap. The unlucky #14 Ferrari, now with Konsta Lappalainen behind the wheel, crossed the finish line in fifth place.

Race 2 - Sunday, 25th August 2024
In qualifying for today's sprint race, the Emil Frey Racing Ferraris qualified fifth (#14) and seventh (#69). After a contact right after the start by Konsta Lappalainen in the #14 Ferrari 296 GT3 with the #6 Audi of Max Hofer, the Finn was relegated to the back of the field and had to pit for a new rear tire. 

Thierry Vermeulen had a decent start in the #69 and made up a position, which he was able to maintain even after the Safety Car right at the start. 

After another difficult race with additional problems at the pitstop due to a defective impact wrench, the #69 Ferrari finished the race in 8th place. Ben Green and Konsta Lappalainen were able to work their way up to 13th place.

Team Quotes Emil Frey Racing
Lorenz Frey-Hilti, Team Principal 
“Unfortunately, it was a bitter weekend for us, especially as our rivals scored a lot of points and now have a considerable lead in the championship. Ben Green took an outstanding Pole Position in a turbulent qualifying session that included a red flag. In the races you could see that the BMWs were faster and then we had bad luck with the contact. Then on Sunday, during a pitstop, the right rear impact wrench was defective, which caused us to lose additional positions. Now we have to pin our hopes on the last two races.”

Jürg Flach, Technical Director 
“Not an easy weekend. The performance in qualifying was ok, but acceleration and Top-Speed were lacking in the race. Yesterday was ultimately good with fourth and fifth, but considering that we started from Pole Position, the race was rather frustrating. Unfortunately, the team championship is now a long way off!”

Driver Quotes - #69
Thierry Vermeulen (Netherlands) 
“I think we had one of the fastest cars in the field but couldn't make it work. The race on Saturday was very strong with 4th place and that was great teamwork and strategy. On Sunday I had a solid stint, but we had problems at the pitstop and unfortunately it was a weak weekend overall.”

Giacomo Altoè (Italy) 
“We didn't have a good qualifying session on Saturday. The whole weekend we struggled with problems that were out of our control. But the races were positive and yesterday we had a great comeback and good points for the championship.”

Driver Quotes - #14
Konsta Lappalainen (Finland) 
“Saturday was obviously very disappointing for us, and we were hoping for a better race on Sunday. Unfortunately, it didn't go as we had hoped, and I think it's going to be really difficult now in terms of the championship.”

Ben Green (Great Britain) 
“I'm lost for words, the maneuver on Saturday was absolutely unnecessary. It really hurt us in the championship fight and that hurts the most. We needed the win on Saturday to close the gap.”