Early podium success for both Aston Martin crews at GT4 Winter Series opener

There were class podiums to be had this weekend as the GT4 Winter Series kicked off its five-round season around Autódromo Internacional do Algarve near Portimao with two Aston Martin Racing powered actually taking part within the sixteen runners.

Earlier reported as just the Araujo Competicao team running their #007 new Vantage GT4 with an additionally changed driver line up and class of Goncalo Araujo and Frederico Peters within the Pro class, we later saw that the Mucke Motorsport crew of Thilo Goos and Mattis Pluschkell had in fact arrived with their older Vantage GT4 and not their published BMW M4 GT4.

 

Three races on the books with each driver taking one alone before both pairing up for the third saw the grid take on some (usual) challenging conditions as rain showers passed over the circuit during the weekend.

Kicking off the weekend saw both Araujo and Goos open up the racing within their respective cars to eventually finish P6 overall/P5 in class for the #007 and P11 overall/P2 in class for the #700 Mucke entry after that fifteen-lap affair.

Race two saw their opposites take to the wheel for the next race where it was to be a class double for the Aston runners where Peters claimed a P4 overall/P3 in class finish and Pluschkell P7/P1 result for his efforts.

Race three was a longer one-hour race with a mandatory pit stop and driver change. A problem with the #007’s pitstop duration saw them have a 64 second time penalty being added to their race time which (obviously) dropped them out of class contention with a P11 overall/P5 class finish whilst the #700 Mucke duo claimed another P2 within their Club class.

 

The next round of the season will be from Estoril next weekend.

Photo credits – L Southern / P Hay - Gedlich Racing