Mission accomplished for Alex Fontana who secured a fine result in his career first Nürburgring 24 Hours: 18th overall for the Swiss driver at the wheel of the Lamborghini Huracàn GT3 Evo entered by the Konrad Motorsport team. The legendary German endurance race, one of the most difficult and most gruelling in the world, lived up to its reputation with prohibitive conditions to the point where it had to be suspended for some hours due to fog. For Fontana and his teammates Axcil Jefferies, Tim Zimmermann and Michele Di Martino the challenge was made all the more difficult by the fightback they were obliged to undertake. But we can safely say that they passed the test with flying colours. After and excellent qualifying session with second place overall secured in the Friday evening Top Qualifying, the Lamborghini number 19 precipitated to the back of the field of 121 cars after a coming together between Jeffries and an adversary. The damage to the car meant that three laps were lost on the leaders as repairs were made in the pits.
After intermittent rain complicated driving on the Green Hell and meant strategies had to be adjusted it was then the turn of fog to bring a temporary halt to proceedings on the Saturday evening: at 9:30 PM the race officials showed the red flag, suspending the race until visibility improved the following morning. At that point the Swiss driver and his teammates were lying in 42nd place overall, after having carved through the field of slower cars and catching up with their direct SP9 class rivals.
When the race restarted at 11:40 AM on the Sunday that fight-back continued, with Fontana completing the job by driving the final stint in which he upped the pace and had the honour of taking the chequered flag 18th overall and 6th among the Pro-Am crews of the SP9 class.
Alex Fontana
"It was an incredible experience and even though the race was not disputed over the full 24 Hours scheduled it was nonetheless demanding and difficult.I had great fun and managed to improve lap by lap; by the final stint I was able to maintain a truly competitive pace.We found ourselves in last place due to an early collision but nonetheless managed to finish in the top 20: with everything that went on we can be satisfied with this result.Together with the Konrad Motorsport team and my teammates Axcil, Tim and Michele, we were able recover and show great potential.It was a pleasure to have competed in my first Nürburgring 24 Hours with the group and I really hope it won’t be the only one.I now feel the draw of the legendary Nordschleife more than ever before.”