Emil Frey Racing takes win in Gold-Class and overall podium at season opener at Brands Hatch

📌 Fast Facts 📌

Emil Frey Racing kicked off the GT World Challenge Sprint Cup season at Brands Hatch with a podium finish in third place and a class win. Thierry Vermeulen took Pole Position in the first qualifying session and initially led the race before Chris Lulham took the #69 Ferrari to third place and the Gold Cup win. The #14 Ferrari of Ben Green and Konsta Lappalainen finished in a good fourth place. In the second race, a slow pitstop prevented a top result - Ben Green finished fifth after an off and Thierry Vermeulen finished eleventh.

Thierry Vermeulen took his first Pole Position in the first qualifying session with two purple sectors and a time of 1:23.374 minutes, also securing the Gold Cup place with an eight-place advantage over the #58 McLaren. In the second qualifying session, team-mate Chris Lulham in the #69 Ferrari missed out on another Pole Position by just 0.027 seconds. The #14 Ferrari with Ben Green and Konsta Lappalainen finished sixth in both qualifying sessions.

Thierry Vermeulen confidently defended his Pole Position and initially pulled away by three seconds. Ben Green started from sixth place in the #14 Ferrari. In the tightly packed field, the pitstops became the key moment: the #69 Ferrari lost time, Chris Lulham took the wheel and was pushed away in the battle for first place. In a thrilling finale with eight GT3 cars nose-to-tail, Chris Lulham first GT3 sprint race and at his home race, closely followed by Konsta Lappalainen in the #14 Ferrari in fourth place.

The second race on Sunday was once again highly exciting: Chris Lulham started from P2, lost his position briefly, but regained it straight away. Konsta Lappalainen made-up a position from sixth place. After a Safety Car, the pitstop window was opened - another decisive moment. The #69 Ferrari lost time again, while the #14 made-up positions with a strong change. Ben Green then showed great race and was on course for the podium until the last lap but slid off the track briefly at Westfield Bend and finished fifth eventually. Thierry Vermeulen finished the race in a disappointing eleventh place.

TEAM QUOTES - Emil Frey Racing
Lorenz Frey-Hilti, Team Principal 
"After two strong qualifying sessions, especially the sensational Pole Position of the #69, the race results are disappointing. Pitstop problems like this must not happen to us. We have to analyse this and clearly improve. Even though both cars scored good points, we could have done much better with these grid positions. Chris contested his first race for us. It's impressive what he has already shown this weekend, considering that he has almost no experience in GT3 racing."

Jürg Flach, Technical Director
"It's a great shame that we were not able to get more out of these starting positions. The pitstops for the #69 were problematic due to various factors and therefore too slow. If we want to win races, we have to improve a lot in these areas. So there is a lot to do before the next race weekend in Zandvoort."

DRIVER QUOTES - Emil Frey Racing 
Thierry Vermeulen (The Netherlands)
"Qualifying is extremely important at Brands Hatch and we delivered a good performance here. Our aim was to pull out a lead in the first stint in the morning, which we managed to do. But we now have to analyse the situation together with the team, because we lost a lot of time at both pitstops. Our goal for the future is to take the overall victory and not just the class win."

Ben Green (Great Britain)
"Overall, we scored good points, but it's a shame that we did not finish on the podium. Nevertheless, I am very happy with the team's performance, we worked hard together and had good speed, but not everything went right this time."

Konsta Lappalainen (Finland)
"I think we had hoped for more on the first weekend. To finish fourth and fifth is not bad and I think we are quite happy with that. We just need to improve our pace for the qualifying sessions at Zandvoort and then we will look strong."

Chris Lulham (Great Britain)
"It was my first time driving a GT3 car at Brands Hatch. I was under enormous pressure in the first race, I could not attack the McLaren and at the same time defend myself against the Ferrari. But I was able to take third place and that was the main thing."