Young Driver AMR: Fifth at Silverstone

Winning Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin excluded

Young Driver AMR finished fifth in today GT1 World Championship race at Silverstone with a Aston Martin DBR9 driven by Stefan Mücke (D) and Christoffer Nygaard (DK). The race winning Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin DBR9 of Darren Turner (GB) and Tomas Enge (CZ) was excluded after the race.

The qualification race on Saturday brought a good starting position for Turner/Enge in Sunday’s Championship race. Tomas Enge started the qualifying race from Pole-Position and lead until the Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin DBR9 was penalised with a drive trough penalty and a stop and go penalty for crossing the white line on pit entry. Enge/Turner eventually finished fourth, giving them a good starting position for the Championship Race.

Mücke/Nygaard were faced with bad luck in the qualifying race. They had to retire due to a blown tire, resulting in a start from the back of the grid in Sunday’s Championship Race.
The race also didnt startvery promisingly for starting driver Stefan Mücke in the #8 Young Driver Aston Martin. Mücke had a contact with another car in the beginning of the race, which resulted in a blown tire. Mücke pitted for a tire change, luckily during an early Safety Car period, due to a burning car on the track, so he managed to stay on the lead lap. From the back of field, Mücke and later team mate Christoffer Nygaard showed an amazing speed and chased back to the front. Nygaard took the car in 13th position from Mücke. The young Dane was the quickest man on track in the second half of the race, driving almost two seconds quicker than all other cars and finally finished fifth after dramatic battles in the last minutes of the race.

“We saved one set of tires for my stint. With the new tires, I had a clear advantage and could go a really strong pace”, Nygaard said after the race, in which he scored his first points in the GT1-Worldchampionship.

The race winning Young Driver-Aston Martin of Darren Turner and Tomas Enge was excluded after technical checks (Breach of Article 257.3.3.2.d.3 Appendix J and article 5 FIA GT1 World Championship Sporting Regulation). The measurement of the friction block of the flat bottom of the car #7 was found not to be in accordance with the minimum thickness. The team has appealed against the exclusion, the result of the race remains provisional.

Next stop for Young Driver AMR: Next weekends Le Mans Series race, the 1000km of Spa-Francorchamps (B).

Result Championship Race:
1. Hughes/Campbell-Walter Sumo Power-Nissan GT-R
2. Makowiecki/Accary Hexis Racing AMR-Aston Martin
3. Kechele/Menten Reiter-Lamborghini Murcielago
4. Bobbi/Longin Triple H-Maserati MC12
5. Mücke/Nygaard Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin
6. Heger/Margaritis Triple H-Maserati MC12