Aston Martin Racing: Fernandez Fastest At Long Beach

The confines of the historic Long Beach circuit proved friendly again for Adrian Fernandez. The Mexican star and veteran of 16 open-wheel and sports car races turned the fastest time in Friday morning’s opening practice for the Tequila Patrón American Le Mans Series at Long Beach. He drove the Aston Martin Racing Lola-Aston Martin prototype coupe to a quick lap of 1:15.112 (94.323 mph) around the 1.968-mile, 11-turn circuit.

Fernandez, last year’s LMP2 race-winner, is driving with Harold Primat in the first Long Beach race for the Lola-Aston Martin. Coming into the weekend, the team was unsure how the big prototype would handle the tight turns; the answer was to run as much downforce as possible.

Fernandez finished 1.082 seconds quicker than Simon Pagenaud in Patrón Highcroft Racing’s HPD ARX-01c. The young Frenchman won last year’s race with Gil de Ferran, who beat David Brabham – now Pagenaud’s teammate.