Young Driver AMR: Tomas Enge Abu Dhabi Race Report

First FIA GT1 round, which took place on the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi, wasn´t quite good for the AMR Young Driver team. Number seven Aston Martin DBR9 was mercilessly shot down from the track by one of his rivals in the first lap of qualifying race. Red and white car No. 8 not finished neither one all lap of main championship race.


This year's GT1 sports cars championship, which has the status of the official world championship for the first time, started his season in Abu Dhabi on the Yas Marina circuit. On the starting grid were also two crews Young Driver AMR Team.

In the initial qualification, which was cancelled due to serious accident of Natacha Gachnang, Tomas Enge - Darren Turner crew claims eighth place, Stefan Mucke - Christoffer Nygaard crew finished at twentieth place.

In the qualifying race, which determinated positions on the main race starting grid, had Tomas Enge bad luck. One of his rivals spun down in the first corner, rotated his car and crashed to Czech driver. His Aston Martin has been seriously damaged, Enge went slowly to the pit for repair.

Fortunately, car with No.7 at the door has been prepared for the main race, so Darren Turner could drive the first half of one hour race by the schedule. He changed the car with his team mate on thirteenth position. Then Tomas Enge, a native of Liberec, moved forward on a few position up to finishing on eleventh place. Mucke - Nygaard crew cancelled from the race immediately in the opening lap.

Tomas Enge: "I had contact with Miguel Ramos in the qualifying race, he braked too late and lost control of his car. He got the spun and when I tried to go around him, he bumped to the right side of my car. Moreover I had contact with one of the Corvettes. So I drove slowly to the pit, where mechanics began repair the car to main race. "

'The race came out pretty good for us, we managed pit stop quite well. But our car is not fast enough yet and the eleventh place is maximum at this moment. During whole weekend no Aston´s speed compared to Maseratti, Corvette and Ford also. We lost two, three seconds on the fastest car on the race. There is a lot of work what we have to do, moreover, we want to ask the organizers to implement some changes which could makes our car more competitive."

Second round of FIA GT1 will be held at the Silverstone circuit in Great Britain in two weeks.

via PR