Gulf AMR Team Wins!
The new Gulf Aston Martin Racing LMP1 has taken victory in the opening round of the Le Mans Series this weekend.
ASTON MARTIN'S FIRST LE MANS SERIES WIN - Courtesy of Aston Martin Racing |
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Despite very little track time prior to the start of the season, Aston Martin Racing was able to overcome serious opposition to record the company's first ever overall win in the LMP1 category.
During Saturday's qualifying session, German driver Stefan Mücke overcame a minor gearbox problem and some traffic to end up second on the grid in 007. Britain's Darren Turner did an excellent job in his very first LMP1 qualifying to place 009 third on the grid. |
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The same two drivers were chosen to start the race on Sunday. The opening round of the Le Mans Series got underway at 11:30, with a scheduled race distance of 1000 kilometres or 215 laps. By the end of the opening lap, Mücke was in the lead while Turner held third, ensuring that the Aston Martin LMP1 car led its very first lap of competition. Mücke handed over to Jan Charouz after his opening stint, who held second place, while Turner stayed in 009. After nearly an hour and a half, Turner swapped places with Harold Primat, with the Swiss driver keeping 009 well and truly in the hunt for a podium place. Tomas Enge took the 007 car over from his team mate and compatriot Charouz just after 13:00, and immediately set about hunting down the lead car, reducing the gap to less than a second on the 100th lap of the race. The Czech driver was part of a thrilling three-way battle for the lead, but he was not quite able to make his move after losing grip at the end of a long stint. Primat did an excellent job in 009 and handed over to Miguel Ramos just after 1pm. The Portuguese driver had no problems during his first stint and maintained fourth until Turner was back in the car just after the halfway point of the race. Shortly afterwards Enge lost a handful of seconds with a spin that luckily had no lasting consequences, meaning that 007 and 009 maintained their second and third places respectively. During his final stint, Stefan Mücke continued to chase down the leader, catching him lap after lap, but then the race was interrupted by a safety car period caused by a spin for Miguel Ramos in the 009 Aston Martin, 15 minutes into his final stint and less than an hour from the finish. The car was running in third place when Ramos spun, but the Portuguese driver was not able to restart it. This meant that the safety car came out while 009 was recovered, allowing the 007 car driven by Stefan Mücke to close right up to the leader. |
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Once the safety car came back in, Mücke was able to make use of the traffic to pass the leader with a brilliant move around the outside on lap 193, with just 20 minutes to go. The 007 car was already fuelled to the finish, and once in front Mücke was able to pull away to seal an emotional victory on Aston Martin Racing's Le Mans Series debut.
Gulf would like to congratulate the Aston Racing team on an amazing victory and wish them luck in the remaining rounds of the Le Mans Series.The hard work and time spent to get the cars in a position to challenge has been immense, making the victory that much more impressive. Next stop Spa.. |
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