Going to be a tough day at the office for AMR in Germany

Despite their slow starting but progressive Free Practice times all five Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GTE's face an uphill battle come the race tomorrow following a somewhat disappointing qualifying.

During FP1 yesterday the three Pro cars were languishing at the foot of the table - no problem their as everyone was doing what they needed to do with set up and race preparation. That was demonstrated just a couple of hours later when the #99 MacDowall - Rees - Stanaway car shot straight to the top with its sister #97 and #95 just behind in third and fourth in class. The brightly coloured red and yellow Hanergy sponsored car was also the highest placed AMR coming out of FP3 earlier today.


Over in GTE Am both the #96 and #98 cars had of course been extensively rebuilt over the summer break following their sizeable accidents at Le Mans. With both 'Gentleman' drivers being at the wheel at the time of these accidents it would take more than just a couple of free practice sessions to settle any nerves and get them back into a racing rhythm.

None the less the #98 car of Pedro Lamy, Paul Dalla-Lana and Mathias Lauda still managed a top half showing through the three FP sessions despite a few niggles. Over the #96 car emphasis was clearly on getting Roald Goethe settled back into the car following his back injury sustained in France. Long term driver coach and team mate Stuart Hall together with Fancesco Castellacci would see to that.


Then came qualifying……..

In GTE Pro and despite being the fastest AMR stable car it was intact the Danish duo of Christoffer Nygaard and Marco Sorensen in the #95 Young Driver car that would come out fastest securing a P3 in class starting position for tomorrows race. For reasons unknown (except maybe strategic) the #99 and #97 would come out P6 and P7 respectively in class. The team were waiting for the cars to be released back to them so that they could analyse data more accurately into what maybe the issue.


In GTE Am the #98 secured P2 in class just behind the championship leading SMP Ferrari which is good considering the points deficit between them after their LM24 disaster.

Unfortunately the #96 wasn't to fare well in qualifying with by the looks of Hall's own lap times, maybe harbouring an issue following an earlier incident leaving them starting at the rare of the grid tomorrow.

The race starts at 13:00Hrs local and can be viewed live in the UK on MotorsTV or on the internet via the Radio Le Mans broadcast.

#TeamAMR

Photo credits - WEC / Aston Martin Racing