Sunday 12 June 2011

Marcel Fässler (racing driver)

Marcel Fässler, born 27 May 1976 in Einsiedeln, Switzerland  is a auto racing driver.
He began competing in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters for Mercedes-Benz when it resumed in 2000. He finished 4th with no wins in 2000, 4th with one win in 2001 and in 2002 and 3rd with one win in 2003, all four seasons with a Mercedes-Benz CLK. He moved to Opel and an Opel Vectra GTS V8 for 2004 and 2005, where he finished 9th and 12th with no wins after which the brand retired from the DTM.
Marcel also drove the F1 Mercedes-Benz safety car for one event in Canada, while regular driver Bernd Mayländer was off due to an injury. He was on track for three laps after a crash involving Williams' Juan Pablo Montoya and Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello.
Fässler switched to sports cars in 2006, finishing second at the Spa 24 Hours in a Phoenix Aston Martin DBR9 and collecting two overall podiums at the Le Mans Series for Swiss Spirit. In 2007, he returned to open-wheel racing for A1 Team Switzerland in the 6th round of the A1 Grand Prix series held in Taupo, New Zealand, and in the 9th round at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico. He also won the Spa 24 Hours on a Chevrolet Corvette C6.R for Phoenix Carsport.
For 2008, Fässler joined the team for the full FIA GT Championship season. Sharing a GT1 class Corvette with Jean-Denis Délétraz, he won two races, finished 7th in the standings and helped the team finish 2nd at the teams championship. The same year he finished 2nd at the American Le Mans Series Road America race on a works Audi R10 TDI for Audi Sport North America. LMP1 team Sebah hired Fässler for the 2009 Le Mans Series season, having a 2nd place finish as best result. In addition, he and were crowned International GT Open overall and Super GT class champions Joël Camathias in a Trottet-fielded Ferrari F430. He also retired at the 2 Hours of Le Mans driving a works GT1 class Corvette and finished 4th in the GT2 class of the petit Le Mans, also for Corvette Racing.
Audi works team Joest hired Fässler to drive the Audi R15 TDI plus at three 2010 races: Spa (12th), Le Mans (2nd) and Petit Le Mans (6th). He also retired at the 24 Hours of Spa running a Phoenix Audi R8 LMS.

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