With three remaining race weekends of this year´s International GT Open Championship, Emil Frey Lexus Racing is looking back at a mixed season to date. With a phenomenal victory at the season opener at Estoril, an even more dominant start-to-finish race win followed at Spa after securing the team´s first Pole Position with Lexus. After two turbulent race meetings at Paul Ricard and the Hungaroring, the Swiss team is now returning to race action at Silverstone next weekend after a summer break of two months, following an intensive program in the workshop as well as a two-day test at Barcelona.
Just ahead of the second race at Hungaroring, Emil Frey Lexus Racing was still running in third place in the Championship´s team standings, however, an unlucky collision which resulted in the first non-finish of the season set the team back into fifth place with a gap of 25 points to the leaders. Two weeks ago, the team completed two successful days at the Spanish track at Barcelona and is now fully up-to-speed to attack again at the “Home of British Motorsport”.
“We had two very good days in Barcelona and the weather allowed for perfect testing conditions with warm, sunny and dry weather, apart from two slight showers”, says Lorenz Frey, Team Principal Emil Frey Lexus Racing. “We mainly focused on the Set-up of the Lexus RC F GT3 and it was great to see that even the slightest changes would make a big difference in the handling of the car.
“On both days, we had four drivers present: Albert Costa Balboa and Philipp Frommenwiler as the main Lexus drivers, plus Norbert Siedler and myself took to the wheel. We all managed some good long runs in the car, but also simulated some qualifying sessions. I am very pleased with the testing program, because we have come to grips with the car even more and I am confident for a good weekend at Silverstone.”
Whilst the team is currently running in fifth place in the team´s standings, the two drivers are in a promising fourth place with only nine points to the front runners. With an expected strong starting grid, both the team and the drivers are fully motivated for a good result at the fifth round of the championship.
The race weekend at Silverstone will start with two 60-minutes free practice sessions on Friday, 1 September 2017. The first qualifying will take place on Saturday at 11.20am, with the first race of 70 minutes to follow at 3.15pm. Sunday sees the second qualifying at 9.40am with the 60-minute race at 1.15pm.
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Driver Quotes Emil Frey Lexus Racing #54
Albert Costa Balboa (ESP)
“The test was very positive and we tested so many things we simply are not able to test and check during a race weekend. We have come a long way since Estoril and especially at the first two championship meetings, we showed our potential. With the BoP (Balance of Performance) we received at Paul Ricard, it is very difficult to be on top in the championship at the moment. But the team did a great job at the test, we have found out quite a lot about the car and now we are going to Silverstone – a track, that suits my driving style and which I like very much.”
Philipp Frommenwiler (CH)
“After the good test we had at Barcelona, I am very much looking forward to race again at Silverstone after my two visits in previous years with another championship. I know the track very well and I also think, that the track suits the Lexus very well. I´m very excited, the weekend will be super important for the championship.”
