Young Driver AMR: Promising start for at Abu Dhabi

Promising start for Young Driver AMR into the new FIA GT1 World Championship at the breath taking Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi (UAE). In the first qualifying ever of the inaugural round of the GT1-World Championship, both Young Driver AMR Aston Martin DBR9s had a good start and qualified 8th (Darren Turner/GB) and 20th (Christoffer Nygaard/DK) for the qualifying race. Qualifying was stopped after just 19 minutes due to a heavy crash by Swiss driver Natacha Gachnang. Due to extensive damage of the armco barriers, qualifying was not concluded, which in turn prevented the Young Driver AMR drivers to further improve their position in the grid.

The new FIA GT1 World Championship uses the same qualifying system as Formula 1. Qualifying is divided
into three 20-minute segments. After each of the first two segments, the slowest eight drivers are knocked out, thus in the third segment only the quickest eight drivers battle for the pole position of the 60-minute „qualifying race“. The „qualifying race“ defines the starting grid of the „championship race“, which is the main race in which full championship point will be awarded.

Darren Turner started qualifying in the #7 car and waited until midway through the session to join the
track. The former Formula 1-testdriver immediately went into the Top 10 and was eight when practise
was halted with the red flag. “We only prepared for the race,“ Turner said after qualifying. “Our plan was
to save tyres and use only one set of tyres during the qualifying, as we have to use the same tyres in the race. I was just on my quickest lap when the red flags were shown. I’m really happy with the car so far and also the team did a brilliant job on their first weekend in GT1-racing. Tomas Enge is the starting driver in the qualifying race, and with eight place on the grid, he has a really promising start position.”

GT1-Newcomer Christoffer Nygaard showed a solid performance in his first qualifying ever in a the 600
hp GT1-racer. The young Dane established himself in the midfield, when he suddenly experienced engine
problems and dropped down the 20. position. “We had a real good strategy, that should have brought us
into the top eight“ said Nygaards teammate Stefan Mücke after qualifying. “I’m the starting driver in the
qualifying race and will undoubtedly have a exciting race from the 20. position.“