Silverstone: Two Swiss class winners 🎥
BLANCPAIN GT ENDURANCE CUP The Swiss did not play a role in the fight for the overall podium at the second GT3 endurance race. But there were two class winners in Lucas Mauron and Adrian Amstutz. While Scuderia Ferrari failed miserably at the Spanish GP, the private team SMP Racing, supported by factory partner AF Corse, took victory at Silverstone. This is for the [...]
While Scuderia Ferrari failed miserably at the Spanish GP, the private team SMP Racing, supported by factory partner AF Corse, took victory at Silverstone. This is the first overall victory for the famous brand in six years in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup, the most important championship for GT3 sports cars.
In a thrilling duel, Davide Rigon edged out his leading compatriot Giovanni Venturini in a Lamborghin Huracan, securing victory for the Russian team, which is also involved in the World Endurance Championship, and its partners Mikhail Aleshin and Miguel Molina.
Bad luck for fastest Lamborghini team with Rolf Ineichen
The fastest Lambo in the field was that of GRT Grasser Racing, which factory driver Mirko Bortolotti, Christian Engelhart and Rolf Ineichen had put on pole position with the best lap average of all three drivers in qualifying, as at the season opener in Monza. Engelhart led in the first third of the race, which was marked by a pile-up followed by a long safety car period, until a puncture occurred shortly before the Lucerne-based driver was scheduled to change.
Unfortunately, this happened right after the start/finish, so that almost two laps were lost before the Lamborghini with Ineichen at the wheel in 40th place overall got back into the action. The fast trio worked its way back up to P12 before the retirement followed shortly before the end of the three hours of racing.
The biggest victory of Lucas Mauron so far
Nevertheless, the Austrian team had reason to celebrate - and in the middle of it all a Swiss. In the Silver Cup, the category of drivers with FIA Silver classification, Lucas Ayrton Mauron together with Arno Santamato and Gerhard Tweraser managed a great victory over 13 competitors. From the 27th to the 42nd lap (of 76), the second Grasser-Lambo with the St. Gallen native at the wheel was even in fourth and briefly third overall position, which was also due to luck in the timing of the driver change during a safety car phase.
This laid the foundation for the class win. After leading the class for a long time, final driver Tweraser came under pressure due to technical problems on the last lap, but saved first place with a lead of 13 thousandths (!) over an Audi team and two seconds over a Mercedes.
The Mercedes team, which won at Monza and finished third at Silverstone, now leads the Endurance GT Silver Cup by four points over Mauron, Santamato and Tweraser, who had finished fourth at the opening round in Italy, missing the podium by a few hundredths.
For eighth place overall, the silver winners also receive four championship points in the Blancpain GT Cup, which includes the sprint races they did not contest. This makes Mauron the best-ranked Swiss, otherwise only Ineichen still received one point each for pole position in the first two endurance races, which were subsequently unfortunate for his team.
Frommenwiler with Honda on the advance, first finish by Richard
Start driver Philipp Frommenwiler in the new Honda Acura NSX held on to eighth place overall behind Santamato until the driver change. Although his two teammates McMurry and Moore then kept up, with a gap of just 7.1 seconds to the class winners, this only resulted in sixth silver place and 16th overall. Proof of the performance density in all positions.
For Kris Richard there was at least a finish at the first race start with the Lamborghini of Daiko Lazarus Racing Team with one lap behind (12th Silver Cup), after the man from Bern had suffered an accident in the free practice of Monza.
Adrian Amstutz's winning streak, 2nd place for former Emil Frey Lexus
In the Bronze Drivers' AM category, the British team Barwell Motorsport with Adrian Amstutz celebrated victory. This was the fourth win in a row across the season, although Amstutz/Machitski/Ramos were trailing for a while.
Second place went to the Lexus RC F GT3 of Frenchmen Barthez/Delhez, whose Tech 1 Racing team bought the 2018 Blancpain Endurance Cup-winning car from Emil Frey Racing and is now running it on its own.
False fire alarm at R-Motorsport
The only Swiss team in the 48-car field had no luck. Nikki Thiim set the fastest lap of the weekend in R-Motorsport's Aston Martin Vantage GT3 in the third qualifying session. Speed alone just doesn't count, win Ineichen: After this car was on its way to a top-10 finish, a stirred-up piece of rubber triggered the fire extinguisher, resulting in retirement in the pits.
The strategy with the second car from Aston Martin St. Gallen, who celebrated overall victory at Silverstone last year, was ruined by an unfavorable caution period. There was nothing more than 17th place overall after that.
