Nurburgring WEC - Turner's viewpoint
Monday, July 17, 2017
The Le Mans winning Aston Martin Racing squad of Darren Turner, Jonny Adam and Daniel Serra, finished Round 4 of the FIA World Endurance Championship in seventh place at Germany’s Nürburgring on Sunday.
The #97 Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE is the only car in the GTE Pro class running with a three-driver crew post-Le Mans after it was decided that the all-conquering team should stay together for the remainder of the season.
As Darren was behind the wheel for qualifying at Silverstone, Spa and Le Mans, it was Daniel Serra and Jonny Adam’s job to qualify the Aston Martin in Germany. Unfortunately they had to settle for eighth place in a closely contested session, struggling with the balance of the Aston Martin.
Jonny Adam took the start of the six-hour race on Sunday before handing the #97 over to Turner.
“The conditions at the start were a bit tricky as it had rained before the race so the track was a bit cold and slippery,” explained Turner. “Jonny managed to have a good run though and made up a position when one of the Ferraris ran into trouble.
“I jumped in after that,” he continued. “Our goal was to stay on the lead lap and see how the race would shake out. We knew that we wouldn’t be able to get a result on performance but hopefully by other people having issues so we just needed to focus on staying in the game. The way the tyre strategy works in the WEC you never know who is on old tyres, new tyres or a mixed set so everyone’s performance ebbs and flows throughout the race.”
During Serra’s run he had a good scrap with the Fords, which backed them up and gave the sister #95 Aston Martin a bit of breathing space that helped them to stay ahead of the Fords and take fourth place at the end.
“It was a team effort to maximise manufacturer points,” said Turner. “That’s how this championship goes though. We came here off a massive high from Le Mans where we were super competitive and this weekend we have struggled to get close to the others. We need to get our heads down now and focus on what we can do in Mexico.”
The 6 Hours of Mexico takes place on 3 September.
