A step too far for the #98 AMR in GTE-Am

Having already bagged the bonus point on offer by claiming the GTE - AM class pole position yesterday, todays six hours of Bahrain was still always going to be a tall ask for the #98 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GTE of Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda as they struggled to keep their GTE Am Championship title hopes alive.

With Lamy starting the car again for the team under the waining but still considerably high air temperature (35deg C) the objective for the car was simple - win the race and hope that the #83 AF Corse Ferrari would fail to complete the 70% minimum of the race required for them to claim the championship.


That chance suffered an early blow when Lamy severely flat spotted the outside front tyre locking up into a corner whilst the #83 Ferrari was pushing him hard and by the time he pitted they had dropped to P5, running 5 seconds of the Am class pace.

Then Mathias Lauda stepped up to the mark, wringing the neck out of the V8 engine as he sped up the timing board to be leading when a bizarre imbalance in the car going round one corner turned into a real 'tank slapper', miraculously held by Lauda and recovered loosing himself just two positions.

Handing of the reigns to Dalla Lana there was still hope with the #83 then languishing at the rear of the pack simply knocking off the laps to the 70% race distance. Then just after the midway point of the race disaster struck when their V8 engine coughed and spluttered, coughed and spluttered at bit more emitting the tell tale smoke out of the exhausts of an engine failure.


That ended any hope of a team and driver championship win for the #98 car and handed both to the #83 AF Corse crew for what are very well deserved titles for them.

Bitter disappointment for Dalla Lana, Lamy, Lauda and all of the AMR crew who have worked so hard this season to be able in any sort of position post Le Mans to contend for the titles.

Great job ladies and gentlemen - top job - take a bow and lets plan for 2017!

Photo credits - Adrenal Media