Second win of the season for Emil Frey Racing at DTM at Zandvoort

Zandvoort, The Netherlands – 09th June 2024 

Just as it happened in Oschersleben, Emil Frey Racing secured its second DTM victory of the year in impressive style. At the third round in Zandvoort (The Netherlands), Jack Aitken raced to Pole Position on Saturday and drove home an unchallenged victory. Thierry Vermeulen narrowly missed out on the podium at his home race with fourth place on Sunday, achieving however his best result of his DTM career to date. In the ADAC GT Masters, the team from Safenwil secured two solid Top-10 results. 

DTM 

In a changed format for the weekend, the second qualifying session took place on late Friday afternoon, where local hero Thierry Vermeulen qualified in third place, closely followed by his team-mate Jack Aitken in fourth. 

Qualifying for the first DTM race of the weekend then took place as usual on Saturday morning, and Jack Aitken took his second Pole Position of the season after Oschersleben - with a gap of 0.374 on the second-placed Clemens Schmid in the McLaren. After a difficult qualifying session, Thierry Vermeulen only started the first race from 15th place. 

The fifth race of the DTM season took place on Saturday at the usual time of 13:30 and Jack Aitken led the field of 20 cars from Pole Position - and had a lead of almost half a second after just one lap. 

In the starting phase, the only Dutchman in the field, Thierry Vermeulen, made-up ground and fought his way up to 13th place. Meanwhile, the gap between the leader Jack Aitken in the #14 Ferrari 296 GT3 and the #85 McLaren of Clemens Schmid in 2nd place was already 2.4 seconds. 

Even after his pitstop, the Englishman maintained his lead and extended it to 2.1 seconds over René Rast, who was now in second place in the #33 BMW. Thierry Vermeulen again lost a few positions and was running in 16th place.

Jack Aitken crossed the finishing line in first place for the second time this year and secured the second victory of the season for himself and Emil Frey Racing. Unfortunately, his team-mate Thierry Vermeulen was unable to finish higher than 15th on home ground.

The second dune-dance of the weekend took place late on Sunday afternoon, and the two Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3s formed the second row of the grid, with Thierry Vermeulen in third place and Saturday's winner, Jack Aitken, in fourth. At a breathtaking start, the front rivals hardly gave each other any space. Whilst Thierry Vermeulen retained 3rd place, Jack Aitken lost one position.

When a violent accident occurred shortly afterwards between the #85 McLaren and the #22 Mercedes-AMG, the race was red-flagged.

After a brief interruption, the race was re-started behind the Safety-Car with 55 minutes plus one lap to go. The Safety-Car was deployed once again when the #90 Porsche spun.

At the re-start, Thierry Vermeulen and Jack Aitken remained in 3rd and 5th place. When Jack Aitken was one of the first to head for the pitlane for his stop, the mishap that would cost him the whole race happened: He stopped with the wrong pitstop crew and received three penalty laps for this and for blocking another car - which relegated him to 16th place.

Thierry Vermeulen came into the pits from third place on lap 16 and as soon as he had new tyres, the Dutchman drove the absolute best first sector on both the 19th and 20th laps.

With a good 20 minutes to go until the black-white chequered flag, a close battle for the podium places was underway. When Thierry Vermeulen was then confronted by two opponents, he was unable to fend them both off and had to let the Audi of Kelvin van der Linde pass. Even though the leading #11 BMW had problems with the car and even lost parts, it remained at the front of the field. Thierry Vermeulen repeatedly tried to pass the #3 Audi in front of him, attempting to overtake on all sides, but could not get past. In the end, he missed out on his first DTM podium by 0.219 seconds, but fourth place was still a strong result in front of his home crowd. Jack Aitken, who is now 7th in the drivers' standings, finished a disappointing 16th.

ADAC GT Masters 

The start of the second ADAC GT Masters race weekend began with two Free Practice sessions in which Jean-Luc D'Auria and Alain Valente finished 14th and 7th respectively. 

In the first qualifying session, Alain Valente showed the potential of the Ferrari 296 GT3 and set the fourth-best time - however, the car with the number 14 was subsequently disqualified due to an irregularity with the tyres - and the first race was started from the back of the grid.

On the very first lap, the reigning vice-champion from 2023 was able to push past the #8 Audi. He then was nose-to-tail to the #33 Lamborghini for several laps but simply couldn't get past it. But shortly before the pitstop window, Alain Valente finally overtook the #33 Lamborghini on the approach to the second corner and took over 12th place - and promptly set his personal best time in the middle sector.

While light rain began to fall in the 34th minute, which did not hinder the race any further, Alain Valente had closed the gap to the cars in front of him and was one of the last to complete his pitstop to hand over the #14 Ferrari 296 GT3 to his team-mate Jean-Luc D'Auria. 

After all, 16 participants had completed their pitstops, the #14 re-joined the race in 10th place. After a quiet stint, the #14 Ferrari benefited from a retirement and made it into the Top-10 with a solid ninth place.

At the start of the second qualifying session, Jean-Luc D'Auria had a spin on exiting the pitlane and lost his rhythm as a result. He then started the race from 10th on the grid and made-up one position on the first lap. In the following laps he fought a strong duel with the #91 Porsche for 8th place and after an eight-minute Safety-Car phase he was finally able to overtake his rival. 

Due to several penalties and retirements, Jean-Luc D'Auria was already in sixth place and headed to the Emil Frey Racing pits for the obligatory pitstop. Team-mate Alain Valente rejoined the race in eighth position. In a spirited overtaking maneuver, the Ferrari driver passed the #10 BMW on the difficult outside track and took seventh place. As soon as the Swiss driver had a clear run, he set a personal best time. 

The final phase of the race was interrupted by two Full-Course-Yellows and, finishing in 8th place, the #14 secured his second Top-10 finish of the weekend.

Team Quotes Emil Frey Racing

Lorenz Frey-Hilti, Team Principal
"We were in a very good position on Sunday with P3 and P4, but Jack's mistake was a shame, and he unnecessarily lost some championship points. Thierry showed a sensational race, I would have been so happy for him if he had scored a podium at his home race. But the BMWs were definitely unbeatable. It's a great pity that he was overtaken by Kelvin van der Linde (Audi), because he would certainly have held him off, but in an overtaking maneuver where both overtook at the same time, Kelvin simply had the better position. Fourth place is still very, very good. Thierry's qualifying on Saturday was not so strong and he didn't quite get the sector times together, while Jack then drove to victory with an incredible qualifying lap. At the ADAC GT Masters, we drove from the tent into the pitlane on the race tyres, and even if that wouldn't have given us much of an advantage in the end, it's still forbidden. That's obviously something that shouldn't have happened. The race was then very good, we finished in the points, although it is very difficult to overtake at Zandvoort. We definitely need to work on our qualifying performance and improve here. Only then will the results improve, as it is simply difficult to get the full performance out of our car in traffic. We are very strong on free laps, so we have to capitalise on that in the qualifying sessions." 

Jürg Flach, Technical Director
"The car was very competitive throughout the weekend, both in qualifying and in the races. BMW was in a league of its own in the races. On the ADAC GT Masters side, we are still on a learning curve and our young drivers are gaining more experience and confidence from race to race. I am convinced that we will also improve in the next races."

Driver Quotes DTM

Jack Aitken (Great Britain) #14
"It looked like an easy win, but we were still careful, especially at the pitstop. I knew I had to give everything right to the end, as René Rast in the BMW was putting pressure on me, and I always tried to maintain the two-second lead. The Ferrari is so good when you have a clear run and so I was able to extend my lead over the rest of the field right at the start. Sunday was all the more disappointing and the fault was clearly mine."

Thierry Vermeulen (The Netherlands) #69
"Saturday was a really difficult day for me, I had a few problems in qualifying and the poor grid position obviously didn't make the race any easier. Nevertheless, the Ferrari has a lot of potential and congratulations to Jack and the team for another win. Even though it's a shame that I missed out on the podium so narrowly in my home-race, it's nice to have achieved my best result in the DTM on home soil so far with fourth place."

Driver Quotes ADAC GT Masters 

Jean-Luc D´Auria (Switzerland) #14
"Saturday was a very difficult day. There were a lot of mistakes that shouldn't have happened. We all have to sit down together after this weekend and find a way to avoid these mistakes in the future. We lose and we win together. The races went quite well after all, especially on Sunday we had a much better pace and finished in the Top-10 in both races. We are looking ahead and looking forward to the next race at the Nürburgring in July."

Alain Valente (Switzerland) #14
"Qualifying didn't actually go too badly, we would actually have been fourth on Saturday, but we had to start from the back due to the disqualification. The good thing is that we know the car is very fast - you can see that from Jack Aitken's victory in the DTM. I'm definitely looking forward to the next race weekend at the Nürburgring in July."