Alex Fontana brings home to Lugano his first title of the 2021 season: the Swiss driver is the Silver Cup Sprint champion in the GT World Challenge Europe, the world’s most prestigious and competitive GT series. At the wheel of the Emil Frey Racing team’s Lamborghini Huracàn Evo GT3, Fontana secured the title in the deciding round in Valencia. A complicated Sunday saw Alex focusing on the overall standings and adopting a calculated approach. The title could have been won mathematically after Race 1, had it not been for a drive-through penalty inflicted for a collision late on, when Alex was fighting for 2nd place overall. In Race 2, Alex took the first stint, but a pit stop problem cost precious time and saw his teammate Ricardo Feller starting his own stint 34 minutes from the end of the race. The precious points conquered were however sufficient to allow Fontana to be crowned as the solo Silver Cup champion, with a total of 103 points. On the “Ricardo Tormo” circuit, the chance to manage the race had been provided by what had generally been a season in the limelight, with overall victory in Race 1 at Zandvoort being the greatest triumph. Until now at least. The title represents a huge satisfaction for Fontana, after the decision to return to defend the Emil Frey colours this season. An all-Swiss pairing that had already proved to be successful in 2018, when Alex had taken the Silver Cup title in the Endurance Trophy, in quite remarkable circumstances given that he had been driving the “old” Jaguar XK. The 2021 has still more to offer as there is another round to be raced at Barcelona on the 10th of October, this time valid for the Endurance Trophy. Fontana will go into the race sharing the overall lead with his teammates Feller and Rolf Ineichen, with an advantage of 61 points in the standings. With his 187 points, Alex is leading the Silver Cup overall standings that combine results in the Endurance Cup, with its endurance races including the legendary Spa 24 Hours, and those of the now completed Sprint Cup, in which the race weekends feature two 60-minute heats. Fontana can therefore celebrate the capture of the first title of the season, but the hunt for the triple goes on.
Alex Fontana “We did it, the first title of the year is ours!The weekend at Valencia wasn’t actually one of our best, but having gone into the race as the leader, thanks to the results achieved over the rest of the season, allowed me to keep calm and to manage the situation.This Silver Cup title in the Sprint Cup series carries my name, because Ricardo and I competed in different cars at Magny-Cours, but clearly I have to thank him too for being able to celebrate together with the Emil Frey outfit.This team is like a family for me and as well as sharing Swiss nationality, we have shown that we are a tight-knit group capable of working very together against very strong rivals.It was like that in 2018 too, when we won the Silver Cup Endurance Trophy and the decision to race together again really has proved to be right.In two weeks time we’ll be in Barcelona with the chance to make this 2021 season even more extraordinary.”