Double pole for Aston Martin Racing in Shanghai
Saturday, November 04, 2017
Congratulations to all at Aston Martin Racing for turning around from what was a disaster in the wet of Japan to be leading in the way way possible - from the front come the end of the GTE Qualifying session at this weekend's six hours of Shanghai earlier this morning.
With the WEC combined grid enjoying dry running the three prior Free Practice sessions, the #95 car of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen were the first and only car to hit a sub two minute lap time prior to Qualifying and then only one of three to do so in Qualifying as the Danish duo claimed Pole by 2/10th of a second from the #92 Porsche.
“That was great and our first pole position of the year, which I can’t actually believe but it’s a great day for everyone. It seems like we’ve got some good pace over one lap but this track is a real tyre killer for everyone, so there’ll be a lot of tyre management over each of our stints throughout tomorrow. Today though has been a great result for the team and I hope the #95 is going to take the 50th all-time win for Aston Martin Racing tomorrow”. said Thiim afterwards
“That was great and our first pole position of the year, which I can’t actually believe but it’s a great day for everyone. It seems like we’ve got some good pace over one lap but this track is a real tyre killer for everyone, so there’ll be a lot of tyre management over each of our stints throughout tomorrow. Today though has been a great result for the team and I hope the #95 is going to take the 50th all-time win for Aston Martin Racing tomorrow”. said Thiim afterwards
Unfortunately, the #95 is already all but out of any GTE Pro Championship contention - unlike the teams #98 car in GTE Am. There, the qualifying duo of Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana (with the prior assistance of Mathias Lauda of course) have again done what was required of them to keep their own championship dreams alive by claiming their class pole by nearly half a second from the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche.
Lamy said, “That was a pretty straight forward session and it’s really good to take our sixth pole position of the season. We really need to keep going strong now this weekend to give us the best possible chance in Bahrain and relieve some of the pressure in the championship. Tomorrow will be a tough race, everyone is very fast but we will hope to keep our place in the lead”.
Lamy said, “That was a pretty straight forward session and it’s really good to take our sixth pole position of the season. We really need to keep going strong now this weekend to give us the best possible chance in Bahrain and relieve some of the pressure in the championship. Tomorrow will be a tough race, everyone is very fast but we will hope to keep our place in the lead”.
Unfortunately, things didn't run as smoothly for the Darren Turner/Jonny Adam #97 car who will start the race at the rear of the GTE Pro grid and just ahead of their sister #98 car. Why the differential in performance is not yet clear?
These two pole positions claimed today also signify the 50th pole position for the venerable Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GTE in the FIA WEC - a huge achievement and well done again to all involved at Gaydon and Banbury (and elsewhere with their partners and suppliers for that matter).
These two pole positions claimed today also signify the 50th pole position for the venerable Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GTE in the FIA WEC - a huge achievement and well done again to all involved at Gaydon and Banbury (and elsewhere with their partners and suppliers for that matter).
For those who haven't noticed, there is another excellent piece from Graham Goodwin on Dailysportscar regarding the options and conundrums being faced by the crew of #98 GTE Am car ahead of next years super season. That can be read HERE
Sundays race starts at 11:00hrs local which means a very early start for those of us in Europe!!
Good luck guys!!
Photo credits - AMR
