Debut Le Mans Cup podium for the Code Racing Development Aston Martin

That continued into yesterday’s first officially timed Free Practice session when the #11 car was over three and a half seconds off the GT3 class pace before Sager turned his element around with the second fastest time in his bronze driver session and by the time that Qualifying came about, the Austrian had upped the pace again with a lap time just a quarter of a second off pole for a P2 start to this afternoon’s race.

Racing what would be into sunset at the Spanish circuit, the LMP3 runners ahead again didn’t give their reputation any favours as multiple cars clashed with each other on the opening lap to bring out the Safety Car for the first time. Losing fifteen minutes to the clean-up operation, the race finally got back to green although the #11 Aston Martin of Sager had dropped to fifth.

Whilst other LMP3 and sometimes a GT3 car continued to make contact with one another, the #11 AMR at least managed to avoid all of the incident and accident on track before a stranded car in a gravel trap brought the Safety Car out for a second time with forty-five minutes gone – immediately before the pit window opened.

With pit lane opening, the #11 car elected to miss the ensuing chaos for one more lap before the race went back to green with just over an hour remaining which dropped them down to P7 but there was to be further drama later on around the restart lap involving the class leading Porsche and Ferrari GT3’s slight contact from the Ferrari behind spun the Iron Dames Porsche heavily into the tyre wall and was only narrowly avoided by the chasing pack as it spun back across the track.

An immediate red flag was called with 57 minutes left of the race clock which of course continued to tick despite the temporary cessation of track action. 

Whilst that driver was seen to be otherwise OK for the impact (driver was later taken to hospital for evaluation and checks), the race finally got back underway with little over thirty minutes remaining with another Safety Car restart leaving a 20-minute sprint to the flag.

As the light faded, further Full Course Yellow intervention was required for the removal of debris from the track just as Van Der Steur snatched third on track with just seven minutes remaining. To complete an amazing debut within the series, the American managed to secure P2 in the final laps to finish just twelve seconds behind the class winning Kessell Racing Ferrari.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media