Start of the season: Swiss teams score their first points 🎥

Two Swiss drivers were hoping for overall victory at the 24 Hours of Daytona: Louis Delétraz (center gallery) in the Accura ARX-06 from WTR Andretti and Neel Jani in the Porsche 963 from Proton Racing. In the end, after 791 laps, Delétraz, the driver who had already achieved a top result last year with second place, stood third on the podium.

Jani finished fifth in the customer Porsche, having also been on course for the podium at times. Overall victory went to the Penske Porsche, which was driven by former Sauber driver Felipe Nasr, among others.

Rahel Frey achieved 6th rank

Philip Ellis was delighted with a class victory in Daytona. The ex-DTM driver triumphed together with Russell Ward, Daniel Morad and Indy Dontje in the GTD class for the German team Winward Racing in a Mercedes AMG GT3. The all-female team led by Rahel Frey (Iron Dames) finished 6th in this class.

There were also Swiss successes to celebrate at the Dubai 24 Hours. In the battle for overall victory, however, the two spearheads Ricardo Feller (Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3) and Daniel Allemann (Herberth Motorsport-Porsche 992 GT3 R) came away empty-handed. Feller & Co. retired on Sunday morning in second place when "something broke" in the right rear section. Allemann and his Porsche teammates had to retire from the race after the car slipped on oil and landed in the crash barrier of turn 1.

Podium places for the Swiss  

Fabian Danz (gallery right) did better. The Emmental native secured his third class win in a row in the 24h Series Middle East Trophy and celebrated the 992 team title with his Red Camel-Jordans.nl team. A Swiss team, Fach Auto Tech (P3), also finished on the podium in the same class. The second Fach Porsche had to settle for 13th place in class (8th in the amateurs). Gero Bauknecht was also on the podium in second place in the TCX class, i.e. the special touring and silhouette racing cars.

Olivier Burri finished in the top ten

Olivier Burri (gallery left) was also satisfied. The four-time Swiss rally champion, who was competing in the Monte Carlo Rally for the 26th time, finished 16th in the final classification, just over 30 minutes behind winner Thierry Neuville. In his class, the RC2, Skoda driver Burri and his French co-driver Anderson Levratti even made it into the top 10 in ninth place.

Bad luck for the Formula E drivers

There were no success stories from a Swiss perspective at the two Formula E races in Saudi Arabia. Sébastien Buemi, twelfth on Friday and thus the best Swiss driver, had to sit out the second race after an accident in qualifying. Edoardo Mortara finished the two races in Diriyah, a suburb of Riyadh, in 15th and 11th place, while Nico Müller was 13th and 18th respectively. The victories went to Jake Dennis and Nick Cassidy. The next race will take place on March 16 in São Paulo.

Photos: Winward Racing, Delétraz archive, 24h Series, Cornevaux
Source: Car Sport Switzerland
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