All Aston front row at Silverstone

The first uninterupted three part qualifying session for the FIA GT1 World Championship resulted in an all Aston Martin front row with the nr7 Young Driver Aston Martin of Darren Turner and Tomas Enge taking pole position for this afternoons Qualifying Race. The nr 9 Hexis AMR Aston Martin DB9 of Frederic Makowiecki and Tomas Enge will line up alongside them on the front row, with Makowiecki setting a lap time 0.4 seconds behind Turner. Heading row 2 will be the nr23 Sumo Power GT Nissan GT-R of Michael Krumm and Peter Dumbreck with reigning FIA GT Champions Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini in the Vitaphone Racing Team Maserati MC12 in 4th place.

nr7 Young Driver Aston Martin DB9.

Darren Turner: “Obviously I’m very happy for the team. We had a lot of disappointment at Abu Dhabi and Thomas was very unlucky in the first race. But it’s nice to be at the top end of the grid because it was frustrating for a lot of people at the last race. The gaps are closer and everything is going to be much more competitive. Very happy, first qualifying was okay. One good lap was all we needed to be in the top 16, then Thomas was a little bit unlucky in the 2nd session with traffic. Then in the final session, my first lap was okay, made a few mistakes and I was a bit ragged and I just calmed down and put a clean lap together. It’s nice to be here at Silverstone, and I only live 10 minutes away, so I know the place like the back of my hand. And Thomas lives 15 minutes away, so we both know it very well. With a new section, I really enjoy the new part of the track, it’s got a lot of character. I’m sure as it matures it’ll get better and better. I enjoy the fact that it’s a challenge, it’s bumpy and not perfect, which is great, because a lot of new circuits today are perfect and it’s nice to know this one’s a really great track with a lot of character will get better and better.”

Thomas Enge: “I was just a passenger here. My goal was to get the car to Q3. My lap wasn’t clear, my qualifying wasn’t perfect. I did was I set out to do. The car was really great, we got some real help from the team. Now all the cars are balanced to be closer to each other, better than at Abu Dhabi. I think even the performance of our cars, the Astons, was maybe too good for qualifying. The whole grid of cars were very close to each other. Looking forward to the race and I hope I won’t disappoint the team and that we’ll bring the car back home on a really good position. It was weird this morning to go straight into qualifying without any warm up. It’s an interesting format. I would say that the most interesting this is the whole balancing of the cars in the championship. Right now, we just need to put on the best show possible and I think we produced a really good show last race and let’s keep going and get a bigger audience.

Nr9 Hexis AMR Aston Martin DB9

Frederic Makowiecki: “We are very happy. Thank you Aston Martin and Hexis Racing. After Abu Dhabi, we needed to find a good performance here and now the car is very competitive. After the first qualifying, we changed the setup a little bit and found a really good balance for the car for the rest of the session. ”

Thomas Accary: “It is difficult doing both series because I’ve never driven a GT1 car before. My first lap in gt1 was yesterday and I have to learn a lot. I’m very happy to be sharing the car with Frederic Makowiecki. Thank you to Aston Martin and I think that I’m doing a good job for the team; my goal was to get the car to Q3 and I’m really happy.”