Young Driver AMR: Second consecutive podium for Stefan Mücke and Darren Turner

Young Driver AMR had a great home race in the German round of the GT1-World Championship at the Sachsenring in front of 45.000 spectators. Stefan Mücke (GER) and Darren Turner (GBR) claimed their second consecutive podium finish, when they came third in their Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin DBR9. For Alex Müller (GER) and Tomas Enge (CZE) in the second Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin DBR9, the streak of bad luck continued in the Championship Race, after Enge had to retire following a contact in the first lap.

Stefan Mücke had a good start into the Championship Race. The Aston Martin works driver decided to take the inside line after the light went green. That proofed to be a good decision, when some competitors made contact and spun at the outside of the first corner. Mücke found a trouble-free way trough the corner on the inside line and could take the lead. The contact of some competitors in the first corner caused a safety-car-period. After the restart, Mücke could successful defend his lead. But during the safety-car-period, the tires of the Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin lost temperature and wouldn’t go back to temperature as expected. Due to that, Mücke lost the lead to another Aston Martin and a Lamborghini. After a good pit stop, Darren Turner finished the race in a good third place and secured the second podium finish in a row of the #8 Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin.

For Alex Müller and Tomas Enge, things didn’t got better in the Championship Race, after they already had bad luck during the Qualifying Race. In the first lap, Enge fought with a competitor, who finally spun and touched the Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin at the back of the car during the spin. The rim of the Aston Martin broke and Enge had to retire.

The next race of the GT1-World Championship takes place on 5th June at Silverstone/England, the home track of Aston Martin.

Driver quotes after the race:

Alex Müller, #7 Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin DBR9: „I hope that our streak of bad luck finally has come to an end now and we will have more luck in Silverstone. After much bad luck in Portugal, this weekend was also one to forget very quick.“

Tomas Enge, #7 Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin DBR9: „I had a good start and gained three positions in the first corner. But in the second corner, I made contact with another competitor. He went very wide and spun, unfortunately he contacted my car during the spin at the rear, a rim broke and I had to retire. That wasn’t a successful weekend for us. For the second weekend in a row, we had bad luck and didn’t score any points. We will fire ourselves now up for the next race in Silverstone and will fight back on the Aston Martin home track.“

Stefan Mücke, #8 Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin DBR9: „At the start, I tried to stay at the inside line. I expected that this would be the best way through the first corner and that worked out well. After the first corner, I could take the lead. But then there was a safety-car-period and my tires lost temperature due to that. After the restart, I struggled to bring the tires back to temperature again and lost two positions. The race was very hard, as we also had some success penalty weight in the car, after we also had a good result in Portugal one week ago. The third place finish means some very good points for us.“

Darren Turner, #8 Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin DBR9: „When I went into the car, I was directly behind the second placed Lamborghini and saw that he struggled a bit with the tires. I pushed and tried to attack him, but then the Lambo got his tires up to temperature and pulled away. Third place is a great result and brings us further up in the points ranking.“

Hardy Fischer, team principal Young Driver AMR: „I have some mixed emotions about this race. I’m quite happy with the third place finish of Stefan and Darren, the points help a lot in the drivers ranking. In the team championship, we are lacking some points, as our second car had again some bad luck. After the hard trip from Portugal to the Sachsenring, the team once again did a very good job. We had good pit stops today, I’m really proud of my team. The next race is at Silverstone, the home track of Aston Martin. We will attack again and hope to score good points with both cars.“