Young Driver AMR: Paul Ricard Race Report

Young Driver AMR expected to have a hard weekend at the fourth round of the GT1 World Championship in Le Castellet/France, but nobody expected as much bad luck as the two Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin DBR9 experienced in Sunday's Championship race. Both Young Driver-Aston Martin DBR9 were faced in the 60-minute race with an unplanned pit stop. An electrical issue destroyed the race for Darren Turner (GB) and Tomas Enge (CZ) in the #7 car, while Christoffer Nygaard (DK) and Stefan Muecke (D) in the #8 car had to cope with a puncture.

Bad luck stroked with the #7 Young Driver-Aston Martin of Turner/Enge immediately at the start of the Championship Race. Darren Turner was faced with an electrical issue of the power steering in the formation lap and had to pit to replace the black box of the power steering. The extra pit stop threw Turner back to the rear of field and Enge/Turner ultimately finished the race in 16th position.

Christoffer Nygaard and Stefan Muecke had to start from the back of the grid after a technical problem in Saturday's Qualifying Race. After the first few laps, Nygaard already gained some positions, but then he suffered a puncture and had to make an extra pit stop to change the flat tire. The race ended for Muecke and Nygaard in 20th position.

Driver Quotes after the race:

Darren Turner: "When I drove into the grid, everything was fine. But in the formation lap, I suddenly got a problem with the power steering and I had to pit. So at that point, our race was pretty much done."

Tomas Enge: "I gained some places during my stint and finally finished 16th. Due to our problem in the first lap, no better result was possible. Our Qualifying Race was quite o.k., considering we got so much penalty weight for this weekend. Every point we would have scored would have been like a small victory, but we really had bad luck this weekend."

Christoffer Nygaard: "My car wasn't really handling well during my stint, and then they I suffered a slow puncture. I had to make an extra pit stop and that pretty much was my race. I hope for better luck next time at Spa, a track that suit us more than this track."

Stefan Muecke: "After the puncture in Christoffer's stint, we were at the back end of the field and I had a quite uneventful race to the finish. We lost so much time due to the puncture, that every hope of a good result was gone."

Hardy Fischer, Team principal Young Driver AMR: "When we had the problem with the steering at the #7 car of Darren and Tomas at the start, I knew that we don't have the chance for any good result. We have now to analyse what the problem was. Our crew did a good job agian this weekend, but unfortunately we weren't rewarded with a good result."