Aston Martin: Nürburgring 24 Hours - 21 Hour Report

Mixed fortunes for Aston Martin heading into the final three hours

While this morning’s rain and thick cloud cover cleared as the 16th hour made way for the 17th, Aston Martin’s four official entries continued their individual marches up the leaderboard. The #005 V12 Zagato and #85 Vantage GT4 remain on course to score a double SP8-class podium for Aston Martin while the pair of V12 Vantage GT3s continued to set competitive lap times and climb up the order after their early delays.

The #007 and #006 cars had risen up the class SP9 leaderboard to 21st and 22nd respectively. In the 20th hour, however, the team took the decision to rest each of the V12 Vantage GT3s from the closing stages of the race – with intentions to complete the very last lap alongside their Aston Martin stablemates  – having felt certain that the engineers and drivers had achieved all the could in terms of development and durability testing without unnecessarily risking the cars.

David King, Head of Motorsport at Aston Martin, said: “We came to the Nürburgring with the aim of extending our 100 per cent finishing record with the cars run by our engineering team and to learn more about the new V12 Vantage GT3 in preparation for a full assault on this race in the future. We are well on target to achieve both objectives.”

Just three hours remain at the ADAC Zurich Nürburgring 24 Hours and the sun is shining brightly over the Eifel region. The peerless reliability and competitive speed of the #005 V12 Zagato throughout the duration of the race has placed the sky blue and black machine on the brink of the top 30 overall as it lies in 32nd position. A similarly impressive performance from the #85 Vantage GT4 has seen the orange V8 racer break into the top 40.

One of the drivers responsible for the V12 Zagato’s fine performance is renowned motoring journalist, Richard Meaden (GB): “The car has been running brilliantly all weekend. I did a double stint early this morning and I was told to push as hard I wanted to, so I did! It was brilliant fun and the car felt strong, as though I wasn’t taking anything out of it.

“It was a pleasure to drive through the night and into the sunrise. Those were probably the best racing laps I have ever done.”

Having led the SP10 until an accident dropped it down to fourth position, Team Mathol Racing’s Vantage GT4 is now back up to second and within a single lap of the SP10 class leader.

Keep up to date with Aston Martin’s progress on the official website at www.astonmartin.com/racing, or on its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/astonmartinracing and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/amr_official.

Fans can follow the race live via Radio Le Mans at www.radiolemans.com, which will broadcast for the duration of the 24 hours.

Aston Martin