The Emil Frey Racing Ferraris confirmed that they were decidedly competitive also in the Sprint Cup races that the GT World Challenge Europe contested in Misano.
Returning home with a podium and precious points for the championship this time are Giacomo Altoè and Thierry Vermeulen, who on the track dedicated to the legendary Marco Simoncelli recovered very well after an uphill start.
The pair of the 296 GT3 #69 suffered a lot in finding a balance between Free Practice and Pre-Qualifying on Friday, so much so that a few hours before Qualifying if you passed in front of the Swiss team’s pits you could see the drivers and engineers arguing about several aspects to fix.
In fact, in Q1 things went better for their teammates in the #14, as Ben Green took second place, while Vermeulen didn’t go higher than 11th. But in Q2 Altoè made up for it by reaching third position, which boded well for Race 2, despite the Venetian having admitted that in reality the car performed better with the higher temperatures of the day, rather than in the cool of the night.
#69 Emil Frey Racing, Ferrari 296 GT3: Thierry Vermeulen, Giacomo Altoè
Photo by: SRO
This in fact was the case because the Altoè/Vermeulen duo did nothing wrong in the Saturday afternoon round, first gaining three positions with the Dutchman and then finding themselves in third place thanks to a very quick pit stop made as soon as the window had been opened for the stops, also taking advantage of a small problem had by their colleagues Green/Lappalainen, which due to a slow-to-settle wheel caused them to drop to fourth.
“I’m very happy, I never expected to get to the podium starting from eleventh place on a track where we struggle with the engine because we don’t have a great top speed and overtaking becomes our weak point”, said Altoè who came down from the podium and spoke with the journalists present, including Motorsport.com, referring to the fact that the 296 in the Balance of Performance saw the turbo power removed in the regimes where the change of pace could be made at speed.
“With excellent team management, strategy and pit stops, we managed to score a lot of points. Our teammates had a problem with a tire, having to take it off and put it back on, while we stopped before everyone else.”
“This gave me the opportunity to come back and push with a clear track, which is the best condition for the 296 and saved us a lot of seconds. The BMWs were significantly stronger in this event, but we did our job well.”
#69 Emil Frey Racing, Ferrari 296 GT3: Thierry Vermeulen, Giacomo Altoè
Photo by: SRO
In Race 2 the starting position from the second row was maintained by the same boy from Adria, who among other things also had to defend himself shortly before the stop from the arrival of Valentino Rossi’s BMW behind him, closing every gap to the M4 #46 which however managed to get ahead after the pit stop, relegating Vermeulen to fourth place.
The points gained were nevertheless precious and now the Ferrari #69 duo finds themselves in fourth position in the championship, -20 from the leaders Weerts/Vanthoor (BMW-WRT) and half a length from their teammates Green/Lappalainen, seventh at the finish line of the night test .
#GTWC #Strategy #podium #AltoèVermeulen #Ferrari
