Young Driver AMR: Front start row at Brno

The Young Driver AMR team will start from the front row in Sunday’s Championship Race at Brno, the third round of the FIA GT1 World Championship. Darren Turner (GB) and “local hero” Tomas Enge (CZ) secured an excellent second place in Saturdays qualifying race in the Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin DBR9, which means they will start from second position into the Championship Race. Stefan Mücke and Christoffer Nygaard took a solid 11th place in the second Young Driver-Aston Martin DBR9.

Starting from third position in the Qualifying race, Darren Turner retained his position after the start and chased the second placed Nissan until the mandatory driver change halfway through the race. The Young Driver AMR team performed an excellent pit stop and beat the Nissan in the pits, Tomas Enge went back on the track in second position and finally finished second. Christoffer Nygaard started from 14th position in the second Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin and had a good run before he handed the car to teammate Stefan Mücke. A problem with the wheel nut at the tyre change cost valuable time and theNygaard/Mücke duo just missed the Top-10 finishing in 11th place.

Tomas Enge (#7 Aston Martin DB9):
“I love this point when I take after the car after the pit stop, put some heat in the tires and make up some ground in the first lap after the stop. Our team did a really great pit stop, which brought us to second position. I then chased the leading Maserati, but I saw that I had no chance to catch him, so I concentrated to finish second. I’m really happy to start from the front row into my home race”

Darren Turner (#7 Aston Martin DBR):
“At the start I overtook one Maserati, but a Nissan overtook me on the outside, so I was still running third. I had a nice fight with the Nissan until the driver change, but didn’t risk too much as I knew that our team does a perfect pit work and we had all the chance to beat them (the Nissan) in the pits. Tomas then had this kind of extra speed on his home track and I’m really happy we finally have a result and points after so much bad luck at Silverstone.”

Stefan Mücke (#8 Aston Martin DBR9):
“We had a problem with a wheel nut at the pit stop which cost valuable time. After that the gap to the competitors in front of us was a little bit too big. I could close the gap, but at this track it’s quite difficult to overtake.”

Christoffer Nygaard (#8 Aston martin DBR9):
“At the start I stuck a little bit behind some other cars, but then was able to gain on a position. I concentrated to drive a clean race and could make up some ground to our competitors. We planed to beat them in the pits, but then at the pit stop a problem unfortunately caused a bigger gap.”

Schedule GT1-World
16. – 17. April Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi (VAE)
01. – 05. May Silverstone (GB)
22. – 23. May Brno (CZ)
03. – 04. July Paul Ricard HTTT, Le Castellet (F)
30.07 – 01. August Spa-Francorchamps (B)
28. – 29. August Nürburgring (D)
18. – 19. September Autodromo Algarve, Portimão (P)
06. – 07. November Durban (ZA)
27. – 28. November Interlagos, Sao Paulo (BR)
04. – 05 December San Luis, (AR).

PR