At the four hour mark of the Six Hours of Silverstone, the FIA World Endurance Championship’s opening round, Aston Martin Racing is leading both of the GTE classes.
In the GTE Pro class, Stefan Mücke (D), Darren Turner (GB) and Bruno Senna (BR), each completed stints at class-leading pace to maintain the Gulf-liveried #97 Vantage GTE’s pole position advantage and extending the lead from the #71 Ferrari to more than 50 seconds.
Allan Simonsen (DK) in the #95 GTE Am car started the race with a double stint before handing over to Christoffer Nygaard (DK), who continues to race at the four-hour point. In the second half, teammate Kristian Poulsen (DK) will take of the wheel aiming to maintain the first place position that the team has held since the start of the race.
The second of the team’s GTE Pro cars, the #99 Vantage GTE, piloted by Pedro Lamy (PT), Paul Dalla Lana (CN) and Frédéric Makowiecki (FR), crosses the four hour point in third position and closing in on the #71 Ferrari in second.
The #96 GTE Am car of Jamie Campbell-Walter (GB), Roald Goethe (D) and Stuart Hall (GB) heads into the second half of the six-hour race in seventh.
John Gaw, team principal at Aston Martin Racing comments: “So far, so good. There have been some tricky conditions in the first half of the race but, so far, the technicians, engineers and drivers have all done what we expected of them. We’re hoping for a clean run to the end of the race.”
Darren Turner comments: “Stefan had a great first stint and when he handed the car over to me had a lead of around 11 seconds. I’m happy with my stint; there was a bit of traffic towards the end, as this is when most gentlemen drivers take over, but the car is running absolutely perfectly. Bruno is doing a great job in the car at the moment. We just need to keep this momentum going until the end of the race.”
Allan Simonsen adds: “It was a good start. I stayed put behind the #96 car to avoid any incidents and looked after my tyres; the plan was to double stint the tyres and get a good lead. It was interesting to see if the tyres would hold up but they did and the plan worked out well.”
Follow the team’s progress throughout the race at www.astonmartin.com/racing, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/racing or on Twitter using @amr_official.