The Swiss driver rides ever higher in the GT World Challenge Europe standings thanks to two podiums in Holland
Alex Fontana’s 2021 season in the GT World Challenge Europe just gets better and better: the Swiss driver scored his first overall victory at the weekend, on the historic Zandvoort circuit in a round of the Sprint Cup. The Emil Frey Racing team’s standard bearer, paired with his fellow Swiss Ricardo Feller in the Lamborghini Huracàn GT3 Evo #14 dominated Race 1 on the Saturday in a remarkable demonstration of power and pace. The cherry on his Dutch weekend cake came with a hard-fought second place in Race 2 that projects Fontana ever higher in the championship standings.
It was Feller who took to the track for qualifying on the Saturday morning, claiming pole position in 1'33"586, giving him the opportunity to take an immediate lead in the first race. Feller managed to open up a gap of around 10 seconds on the chasing pack before handing over to Alex at the obligatory mid-race stop. Fontana completed the good work, maintaining and then extending the lead to 13 seconds over the second-placed car. Q2 on the Sunday was less straightforward for Alex who recorded the 16th fastest time, penalised by the continually changing conditions of the asphalt following the earlier rain. However, in the race Alex fought his way back on a track where overtaking is by no means easy. The Swiss driver was lying in 8th place when he handed over to Feller for the final stint, his teammate then claimed second place 5’ 30” from the end, completing a fantastic team performance.
Fontana is now lying in 4th place Overall in the GT World Challenge Europe with 56 points, and is out on his own among the Silver Cup competitors on 112. In the Sprint Cup, the series with weekends featuring dual qualifying and two 60-minute races, Fontana is 2nd overall with 41 points and the leader in the Silver Cup with 62.
The next round of the GT World Challenge Europe, again in the Sprint Cup format, will be held in Italy: over the weekend of 2-4 July at Misano Adriatico.
Alex Fontana
"2021 proving to be a fantastic year: as Silver Cup entrants, not only have we managed to claim overall podium finishes in both Endurance and Sprint race, but at Zandvoort we even managed to celebrate overall victory. In Race 1 we really showed what we’re all about and in the GT World Challenge Europe it’s pretty rare to lead the group from start to finish. We were just as competitive in Race 2, making up for qualifying in a fight-back that went beyond our expectations even though we are well aware of our potential. The merit is down to the incredible work conducted with the Emil Frey Racing team, which for me is like a family, and my teammate Ricardo. There’s a great understanding between us which you can see in the results. It’s great to find ourselves so high in both the overall and Silver Cup standing. The objective now is very simple: more of the same!”