A poorly fixed wheel nit forces the Jaguar to retire in the last hour of the while leading its class
Following the opening round of the Blancpain GT Series at Monza, where Alex Fontana conquered a win in the Silver Cup with the Emil Frey Racing Jaguar, the Swiss driver looked like repeating the feat together with his teammates Mikael Grenier and Adrian Zaugg. Despite a Balance Of Performance (BoP) for its home race that on paper was unfavourable to the British car developed in Switzerland, Alex, Adrian and Mikeal had obtained pole position in the Silver Cup dedicated to young and promising drivers on the International GT racing scene. At the end of the timed sessions, car number 54 had recorded the 9th fastest time, an average of the performances of all three members of the crew, with Alex actually fourth in Q1. At the start the Swiss driver held his position, battling throughout his stint with the Lamborghini #63, the reigning champion in the series, before handing over to Adrian Zaugg. During the last change, with Grenier at the wheel, a nut was not fastened properly on the right rear wheel, obliging the Jaguar to make a supplementary stop and therefore losing its consolidated class lead and compromising an excellent performance in the overall standings.
Alex Fontana
“We’ll be coming back from England a little disappointed. We thought we’d be in trouble having seen the updated BoP following Monza, but instead the excellent work done by Emil Frey Jaguar Racing over the winter ensured that our package was competitive and quick. I’m very disappointed with what happened for the lads on the team, because they worked really hard over the weekend to provide us with an incredible car, and then a bit of bad luck meant all their efforts were in vain. However, we have to focus on the positive aspects, we proved we could compete on level terms with the major manufacturers with works support and in view of Le Castellet we’ll be working even harder to maintain our place at the top.”