Young Driver AMR: Great win at the Ring

The dream weekend for Young Driver AMR at the sixth round of the GT1 World Championship continued in Saturday’s Qualifying Race. Everytime the GT1 cars have been on the track so far this weekend at the Nürburgring, the Young Driver AMR machines have been the quickest. Darren Turner took Pole Position in the #7 Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin DBR9 in the morning and subsequently took the victory along with teammate Tomas Enge in the Qualifying Race in the afternoon. Christoffer Nygaard and Stefan Mücke in the #8 Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin DBR9 finished in 9th position.

Tomas Enge started from Pole Position in the Qualifying Race, but Enge was rear-ended by a Nissan at the start of the race. The former Czech Formula One driver lost the lead and dropped to third, but battled back to first position within just two laps. Enge handed over the Aston Martin to Turner halfway trough the race while still in the lead. Turner then faced a quite eventful second half of the race, as the weather conditions changed and a downpour hit the Nürburgring. The Brit pitted for rain tires and demonstrated that his Aston Martin was not only the fasted car in dry conditions, but also in the rain. After 60 minutes of racing, Enge and Turner took the victory by clear margin of 10 seconds and will start from the Pole Position in Sunday’s Championship Race.

The race of Stefan Mücke and Christoffer Nygaard started eventful. Mücke had rocket start from 11th position and was in fifth position after the first lap. The reigning Le Mans Series-Champion handed the car to teammate in Christoffer Nygaard in fifth position. Another brilliant pit stop of the Young Driver AMR pit crew promoted Nygaard to third before the downpour which made the conditions very slick and tricky. Nygaard lost two spots and was racing in fifth, when the young Dane suddenly spun in the Mercedes-Arena and finished the race in 9th position.

Driver quotes after the Qualifying Race:

Tomas Enge (#7 Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin DBR9)

“I was hit at the start by another car and that worried me a bit. I dropped to third but was able to overtake the two cars in front of me. When I was leading, I tried to save the tires. I saw a big raincloud coming, so I tried to wait with the pit stop as long as possible. We had a really good pace today, in the dry and in the wet. I’m happy for the team to win the Qualifying Race on home turf and hopeful that we will score some big points tomorrow.”

Darren Turner (#7 Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin DBR9):

“Together with Tomas and our Engineer Johannes Gruber, we made a perfect call for the driver change. We changed exactly at the right moment for rain tires. It was then very difficult to bring the tires up to temperature and I had to concentrate to keep the car on track. For tomorrow’s race I hope the weather will be consistent and I hope not to be rear ended at the start like Tomas today.”

Stefan Mücke (#7 Young Driver-Aston Martin DBR9):

“My start was really good, but then I was hit by competitors in the first corner on all sides. The car was damaged due to that, the front splitter was broken and I had heavy vibrations. The car was not very well balanced any more, we then decided for an early stop.”

Christoffer Nygaard (#7 Young Driver-Aston Martin DBR9):

“Unfortunately I spun when I was in fifth position. I really don’t know what happened, as I was driving the corner in the same way as in previous laps. I just hope tomorrow’s race will be good, as we will start from ninth and in the first corner that will be a very dangerous area.”