The six hour race at Paul Ricard, the third championship meeting of the 2016 Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup, was a turbulent weekend for Emil Frey Racing. A collision caused by another contender shortly after the start of the race forced an early withdrawal.

“We’re disappointed; we came here, after all, to collect points for the championship and give a good performance over the full six hours,” summarized Emil Frey Racing driver and team manager, Lorenz Frey, after last Saturday’s race.

The first training sessions initially went according to plan. In the second qualifying round – consisting of 57 GT3 racing cars including 27 direct competitors in the PRO Category – Lorenz Frey (CH), Stéphane Ortelli (MC) and Albert Costa (ES) succeeded in clocking up 11th place, just 0.989 seconds behind the lead. In the all-decisive third qualifying session, however, they did not succeed in getting a free lap, resulting in 25th starting place. The drivers also struggled with the Emil Frey GT3 Jaguar’s setup which was attributable to a change in the balance of performance classification at short notice.

The six hour race began at 18.00h local time (16.00h GMT) and carried on into the night. Already in the first hour of the race, Albert Costa was involved in a collision caused by another competitor, but was able to limp back to the pit in the damaged Emil Frey GT3 Jaguar. Although Emil Frey Racing’s nimble team of mechanics needed just seven laps to repair the damaged front spoiler, a top result was no longer possible by then.

This was followed by an impressive pursuit to catch up and, after five hours, the Emil Frey GT3 Jaguar had clawed its way back to 40th overall position. An hour before the end of the race, however, the collision damage forced the Safenwil, Switzerland, based team to stop the car for safety reasons and prematurely exit the race.

“That was a turbulent race with an unfortunate outcome. The team nevertheless did a marvelous job, and benefited from some useful training for Spa. There, we will be contending with two vehicles and hope to transform the potential of the Emil Frey GT3 Jaguar into a quantifiable race result,” summarized Technical Director Jürg Flach.

The official test day for the 24 hour race at Spa-Francorchamps is next on the agenda on July 5, 2016. The race takes place from July 28-31, 2016.