The Swiss driver wins his class in the GT World Challenge Endurance Cup Silver Cup
Alex Fontana celebrated a Silver Cup class win in the GT World Challenge Europe at the Nürburgring, a round of the Endurance trophy. The Swiss driver, together with the Emil Frey Racing outfit and his teammates Rolf Ineichen and Ricardo Feller, at the wheel of the Lamborghini Huracàn GT3 Evo, secured a result that had seemed beyond them after qualifying on the Sunday morning, and even more so early in the race, a result that brings him ever closer to taking the title.
The Fontana/Ineichen/Feller trio had qualified in 14th place overall, third in the Silver Cup, with Fontana recording the fastest lap in Q2, stopping the clocks on 1.56:091. Ineichen then took the first stint in the three-hour race and around 20 minutes after the start was sent spinning after a collision with an adversary, losing places in the process.
Alex took over the for second stint. Thanks to an effective strategy employed from the pit wall, he prolonged his stint for a few precious minutes, coming into the pits in a provisional 5th place with 52 minutes remaining and handing over the wheel of Lamborghini number 14 to Feller. The finale characterised by two full course yellows and the safety car bunched the field, with Feller finishing 8th overall and first among the Silver Cup entrants.
With this victory Fontana maintains and reinforces his Silver Cup leadership in both the Endurance trophy, with 85 points, and above all the Overall standings, where he is out on his own with 175 points.
On the Saturday afternoon Fontana also took part in the Fanatec Esports GT Pro Series, the innovative virtual tournament that accompanies all the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance events. 5th overall after qualifying in 10th place and 3rd in the Silver Cup, Alex brought the Emil Frey Racing team a precious additional point for the real life team standings.
The GT World Challenge season will conclude with two rounds in Spain: on 25-26 September in Valencia, the final round of the Sprint trophy, in which Fontana is leading the Silver Cup standings, and on the 10th of October in Barcelona, for the Endurance Cup and of course the combined title.
Alex Fontana
"This day at the Nürburgring was one of those that remind why I love motorsport so much. In practice on the Saturday, but also in qualifying, we never really managed to express our full potential and early in the race the situation became all the more difficult when Rolf lost positions after a collision in which he was the innocent party. However, the Emil Frey Racing team acted as one, refusing to give in. I pushed as hard as I could in my stint, delaying the pit-stop a little, and climbed up to 5th place overall, thanks to a very competitive pace. Ricardo then completed the job and was great during the final phase of the race in which two safety-car stints made things even more challenging. With this Silver Cup win we have reinforced our class leadership and we can confidently challenge for the title: everything’s still to play for though and we have to remain concentrated.”