Aston Martin Racing is leading both of the GTE classes at the world-famous 24 Hours of Le Mans at the halfway mark after completing 161 laps of trouble-free racing with its #97 and #95 V8 Vantage GTEs.
Aston Martin Racing is leading both of the GTE classes at the world-famous 24 Hours of Le Mans at the halfway mark after completing 161 laps of trouble-free racing with its #97 and #95 V8 Vantage GTEs.
The #97 Aston Martin Vantage GTE Pro of Darren Turner (GB), Stefan Mücke (DE) and Bruno Senna (BR) has been in a gripping battle with the #74 Corvette and #51 Ferrari for the hours leading up to the middle point of the race but it is the V8 Vantage that leads after 12 hours.
“It was a good stint,” commented Mücke on completing the first double stint in total darkness. “There was some oil on the track, which made driving difficult, but I just took some care. Bruno is in the car now and has done a fantastic job to keep the Corvette and Ferrari at bay.”
The #95 Young Driver AMR Vantage GTE also had a strong lead over the GTE Am class. Kristian Poulsen (DN) completed his double stint and pulled away from the cars behind - at the halfway mark, with David Heinemeier Hansson (DN) behind the wheel, it has more than a two-minute lead.
The identical #98 had a power steering pipe come loose and was forced to pit from the lead of the GTE Am race, but the team was able to quickly rectify it and Pedro Lamy (PT) was the fastest GTE Am car of the session with a lap time of 3:56.224.
“It’s obviously a shame that the #98 lost the lead of the race, but it’s good that #97 and now #95 are leading the GTE classes,” commented John Gaw. “The next few hours of the race are when things get really tough but it’s great that we are leading both classes with such a good margin as we enter into them. It puts us in a very strong position, but anything can happen.”