The Gulf-liveried Aston Martin Racing team came within a whisker of its second race win of the 2009 Le Mans Series with a hard-fought second place in the Algarve 1000 kilometres in Portugal.
 
The 007 car crewed by Jan Charouz (CZ), Tomas Enge (CZ) and Stefan Mücke (DE) finished less than a minute and half shy of the works Pescarolo at the end of almost six hours of racing. Apart from an early spin, 007 ran a faultless race in difficult conditions on the first ever night LMS race.
 
The lead changed hands between the blue and orange 007 car and the number 16 Pescarolo throughout the race with slightly different pit stop strategies used. Ultimately, it was the Pescarolo that came out on top, leaving Stefan Mücke to bring the Gulf liveried Aston Martin across the line in second place.

007's Jan Charouz described conditions. "It was fun but very tough. It is a hard track to drive because you have corners, corners and more corners. Even on the straights you can't really relax because it's so bumpy that you have to keep hold of the steering wheel tightly or you will go off track. I got used to the track pretty quickly so the visibility wasn't really a problem for me".
 
009, driven by Harold Primat (CH), Miguel Ramos (PT) and Darren Turner (GB) finished a strong fifth, four laps behind. Its only problem of note being some slight damage sustained when contact was made with another car during Harold Primat's first stint.
 
"We started fifth and we finished fifth. The car was very good but I think like most people, our race wasn't trouble free," commented 009 driver Darren Turner. "I really enjoyed my time on the track especially at the end as the car was really well balanced and we had good pace. The team did another great job in the pit stops."