In an emotional last race for the GT3 Jaguar, the Emil Frey Jaguar Racing Team secured the Championship Title in the Blancpain GT Endurance Silver Cup as well as taking third place in the Endurance Cup Team Rankings. Despite difficulties at the beginning, the GT3 Jaguar managed a great progress through the race and even collected some more leading kilometres on his last-ever race laps. Crossing the finishing line, Emil Frey Jaguar Racing celebrated a peaceful end with the GT3 Jaguar – the blue “cat” – that for such a long time was the flagship figure for the Swiss private team.
The start into the GT3 Jaguar´s last race weekend went slowly with 33rd and 28th position in Free Practice respectively Pre-Qualifying. On Sunday morning the three 15-minute qualifying sessions followed, but both the first and second were disrupted by yellow and red flags. Due to heavy traffic, fast lap times were difficult to gain, but the #54 GT3 Jaguar secured once again Pole Position in the Silver Cup and 12th overall place on the grid. Since all lap times from Q2 were deleted later one, the Jaguar team slipped down into fourth in Silver Cup and P22 overall.
But that didn´t stress anyone in the team. Alex Fontana took to the task of starting the GT3 Jaguar into its last race and after three laps he was already in P18. Bit by bit, the Swiss ploughed through the field. On lap 20, he was five seconds behind Silver Cup competitor Hubert Haupt in the Mercedes-AMG GT3. On lap 28, he snapped P12 from him after having gained 1.2 seconds on only one lap. Fontana pitted from P4 and handed the car over to team-mate Adrian Zaugg.
Zaugg returned in P16 into the race and five laps later was running in 15h place and third in Silver Cup. Just before the two-hour-mark, Zaugg had a good re-start following a Safety Car period, taking the lead in the Silver Cup.
The GT3 Jaguar continued to work its way up through the field. The #54 race car caught the perfect moment and pitted with luck on its side during a Full-Course-Yellow phase on lap 64. The time gained paid off and Mikael Grenier returned to the track as the leading car. After the re-start, however, Grenier had to led pass the #4 Mercedes-AMG GT3.
30 minutes before the end of the race, the Safety Car took to the track once again. Firstly, Grenier, who had given up one more place, was safely running in third place, but the #72 SMP Racing Ferrari showed more power and passed the GT3 Jaguar. Two more Safety Car periods followed, and, in the end, there were only five minutes left of racing.
After another strong race, the GT3 Jaguar crossed the finishing line in fourth overall position and securing a well-deserved victory in the Silver Cup.
Team Quotes Emil Frey Jaguar Racing
Lorenz Frey-Hilti, Team Principal Emil Frey Racing
“Today was a very emotional day for everyone at Emil Frey Racing. With the last race for our GT3 Jaguar a long history with this car comes to an end, a car that shaped us, was our partner for many years and which we constructed in Safenwil and built it. The last season with the GT3 Jaguar was one of the most successful for us and with today´s race we underlined the performance of the car once more. I am very pleased that we have won the Silver Cup title, because that is a great present to everyone in the team, who has been with this project for many years.”
Jürg Flach, Technical Director Emil Frey Racing
“A difficult weekend which found its happy ending for Jaguar and the whole team with fourth overall. This result is more than deserved and has brought us the first place in the Silver Cup Endurance as well as third place in the Silver Cup overall. An era comes to an end with today´s race and we can be proud of our achievements. This also applies to the team work throughout the whole year.”
Driver Quotes Emil Frey Jaguar Racing #54
Alex Fontana (CH)
“We had a good start. The track temperature was quite high, and I tried to safe the tyres as much as possible. I did well despite with the extra weight we carried due to the “Balance of Performance”. It is simply fantastic for the whole team, who has built this car a long time ago and today we can celebrate the success. Despite some difficulties we were able to show a strong performance today. It was a really great season.”
Mikael Grenier (CAN)
“For both us drivers as well as the whole team it was an emotional weekend, because the GT3 Jaguar was the flagship for the team. It was our goal to gain class pole position in qualifying again and we achieved that. For the race we were confident, because a lot can happen in three hours. The GT3 Jaguar showed once again its reliability and we knew our speed was good enough for the victory. I did not try anything, because I wanted to secure as many points as possible for the team.”
Adrian Zaugg (CH)
“My runs in qualifying were turbulent, I only managed one fast lap and then there were only yellow or red flags. The GT3 Jaguar showed a strong performance again, and in qualifying we had the fastest lap of all on average. Our goal was to take home victory in the Silver Cup. We headed into this race with 17 points behind and first of all it did not look good, but this time luck was on our side and this is more than deserved for the team.”
