As usual, the GTE Qualifying session of the World Endurance Championship has again not failed to throw everything up into the air again as previously fast cars all see their actual race starting position to end up much further back to what had been suggested earlier.

This afternoon’s GTE Qualifying ahead of Saturday’s 6Hours of Bahrain was much this case again as the early pace setting Porsches all eventually lost out to a first-time pole position for the #60 Iron Lynx Ferrari and with a mix up of the three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTE’s in the middle as well.

A spectacular six hour challenge awaits the Oman Racing Team this coming Friday and Saturday as the Kent-based squad heads to the South of France for round 3 of the Blancpain Endurance Cup on the stunning Paul Ricard circuit (June 24/25).

The only six hour contest on the European championship calendar, the 1000km race is also viewed by many as a warm-up to next month’s Total 24 hours of Spa event with the race running into the late evening – finishing at midnight.

Ahmad Al Harthy, Jonny Adam and Devon Modell are back behind the wheel of the #44 Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 as the sole representatives of the iconic British marque. The Oman Racing Team trio face formidable competition during the event with over 57 GT3 cars expected to line the grid representing entries from the many of the world's most prestigious marques and teams.

After a strong start to the season that saw the squad celebrate its maiden class podium on home soil last time out at Silverstone, the Oman Racing Team heads to France in confident form with it all still to play for. Currently in second place in the Pro-Am Team and Driver standings, the Oman-backed line-up sits just 3 points off Endurance Cup leaders Black Falcon.

“Paul Ricard is one of my all-time favourite places to go and visit;” commented Team Principal David Bartrum. “I love the place. It’s a fantastic facility and a circuit that’s unrivalled in this Championship.

In preparation to the final round of the 2015 World Endurance Championship at the Bahrain International Circuit next weekend it has been announced that Aston Martin Racing will indeed receive a further Balance of Performance adjustment prior to the race.

Unfortunately what has been announced is simply the restoration of the air restrictor to the size that was used by the team at the start of the season way back in April. It was after Le Mans that the team received instruction to reduce its air restrictor as a part balancing solution to peg back the V8 Vantage's and bring forward the Porsche's. What actually happened was that the Porsche's metaphorically flew off  down the pit straight and into the sunset leaving the Prodrive prepared cars languishing at the rear - sometimes even having their Pro cars behind the Am Porsches!

This action from the FIA might have also gone part way to restoring the balance between the three marques - well it might have had it not been for the tyre performance development that has been entered into by Porsche and Ferrari with Michelin. The Am cars receive a 5kg additional weight across the class.

Unfortunately for all concerned all of this is simply academic with none of the five cars being in contention for either the Pro and/or Am driver championship so the decision is almost simply appeasement by the series to the team for getting things so wrong mid year.


What is good news is the return of the #95 Young Driver AMR to the championship following their 'protest' withdrawal from Shanghai three weeks ago. They also welcome back Nikki Thiim for the first time since Le Mans.

Additionally, the #96 car of Stuart Hall and Francesco Castellacci welcome back stalwart Roald Goethe having missed the WEC rounds in America, Japan and China. Stefan Mucke again is absent from the #97 again although he will race for the team in the Craft Bamboo GT3 Vantage at the FIA GT World Cup in Macau in a couple of weeks.

Photo credits - Richard Leach

Anyone tuning into the start of Saturday's six hours of the Circuit of the America's would have been mistaken to believe that Aston Martin Racing had overcome their apparent 'blib' in performance at the previous round of the World Endurance Championship at the Nurburgring, Germany and had regained their racing 'high ground' from their competitor's going into Round 5 in Austin, Texas.

After all, the #99 Velero liveried Pro car of Fernando Rees, Richie Stanaway and Alex MacDowall was sitting on the grid proudly at the head of the GTE field with the #97 Hanergy liveried car of Darren Turner and Jonny Adam just two cars behind and the #95 Young Driver Pro just behind them again.

Even in GTE Am there was a Vantage close to the head of that class in P2 - this time it was the #96 car of Stuart Hall, Francesco Castellacci and Benny Simonsen pipping the #98 to the leading Aston Martin Am car honour.

So, what was all the fuss about?


Unfortunately it only took a handful of laps to become evident.

Despite a superb move by Turner in the #97 car to take the #91 Porsche and the #99 car to lead the class out of the first corner the two chasing Porsche 911 RSR's would soon be able to exercise their now superior performance as offered to them by the series technics panel post Le Mans and not only catch them all but pass the heavily defending Aston's with obvious ease before making their escape into the sunset with the silverware.

It transpired that the Porsche's and Ferrari's were all on differing strategies and set up's compared to the Aston's in qualifying and were all not necessarily able to pick up the mantle from where they left off in Free Practice during the twenty minute qualifying session thus allowing the V8 Vantages to pick up the metaphorical scraps.


Looking at the timing data available from the WEC the simple statement of fact remains -  that the Aston Martin Racing Vantage is still the slowest car on the track across the GTE Pro and Am class in Free Practice and race format in terms of maximum speed - they were in Nurburgring and probably will be in Fuji in three weeks time as well unless something changes.


So and not surprisingly the trophy cabinet at Aston Martin Racing didn't get any bigger again following the conclusion of Saturday's race in either class, the #99 lead the #95 and #97 home in the Pro class in a distant fourth.

What is difficult to understand is how the supposed balancing of performance carried out by the FIA can lead to such a exaggerated and opposing levels of performance across two marques. The Porsche's were at first lagging (artificially) behind the rest for the first three events of the year but now post Le Mans they have now been given a weight break that now sees them further out front than the Aston's ever were. The Aston's were in mitigation for their early form given a reduction in air restrictor size post Le Mans in an attempt to slow them down. This virtually strangles the life out of the V8 leaving a now visual difference between the performance of all GTE marques out of any slow corner and onto a long straight where the Ferrari and Porsche's simply cruise away.


Something obviously isn't right here and it harming the sport the very measures are designed to protect. With three rounds of the 2015 championship remaining surely the FIA needs to re-evaluate its restrictions and off set them so that the cars can race on a level track?


It would be sad to see the remnants of 2015 peter out into oblivion for Aston Martin Racing because of such a small (5mm) but very significant adjustment in performance imposed onto them. They already have much work to do to rekindle any chance of a championship success following their dreadful Le Mans experience - especially in GTE Am without the series inflicting further insult to injury in such a manner as no set up or driving manner can possibly compensate for!

But then they, like the others, now have a heavily revised 2016 variant that they need to get up an running ready for the Prologue in March so minds may already be moving to next year?

Only time will tell.

Photo credits - Aston Martin Racing






  

Darren Turner (GB), Stefan Mucke (GER) and new team-mate Jonny Adam (GB) finished round four of the FIA World Endurance Championship in sixth place at the Nürburgring in Germany yesterday. All three drivers pushed hard throughout the six-hour race so were ultimately disappointed with a sixth place finish, rather than their usual front-running form.

Turner and Mucke qualified the #97 Aston Martin Vantage GTE in seventh place on Saturday, below their usual top three grid position. All of the Aston Martins have been handed smaller restrictors in balance of performance changes since Le Mans and the resulting reduction in power became very apparent on Saturday.

“It’s puzzling as neither of us could get a good time out of the car in qualifying,” said Turner. “It wasn’t just the balance of performance changes as we were also off what the other Aston Martins were doing so it’s a bit of a mystery at the moment.” 

Young Driver AMR finished fourth at the debut of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) at Nürburgring in Germany. After six hours of racing, Marco Sørensen und Christoffer Nygaard came home fourth in the GTE Pro class in their Aston Martin Racing entered Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin Vantage GTE.

Sørensen started third on the GT grid and moved up one position in the opening hour of the race. After the first hour, he and Nygaard could not maintain this position, eventually dropped to fourth position and stayed there until the end. After six hours of trouble free racing, with slick pit work and without any incidents, Sørensen/Nygaard brought the Aston Martin to the chequered flag in fourth position and were the highest placed Aston Martin team.

Despite their slow starting but progressive Free Practice times all five Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GTE's face an uphill battle come the race tomorrow following a somewhat disappointing qualifying.

During FP1 yesterday the three Pro cars were languishing at the foot of the table - no problem their as everyone was doing what they needed to do with set up and race preparation. That was demonstrated just a couple of hours later when the #99 MacDowall - Rees - Stanaway car shot straight to the top with its sister #97 and #95 just behind in third and fourth in class. The brightly coloured red and yellow Hanergy sponsored car was also the highest placed AMR coming out of FP3 earlier today.


Over in GTE Am both the #96 and #98 cars had of course been extensively rebuilt over the summer break following their sizeable accidents at Le Mans. With both 'Gentleman' drivers being at the wheel at the time of these accidents it would take more than just a couple of free practice sessions to settle any nerves and get them back into a racing rhythm.

None the less the #98 car of Pedro Lamy, Paul Dalla-Lana and Mathias Lauda still managed a top half showing through the three FP sessions despite a few niggles. Over the #96 car emphasis was clearly on getting Roald Goethe settled back into the car following his back injury sustained in France. Long term driver coach and team mate Stuart Hall together with Fancesco Castellacci would see to that.


Then came qualifying……..

In GTE Pro and despite being the fastest AMR stable car it was intact the Danish duo of Christoffer Nygaard and Marco Sorensen in the #95 Young Driver car that would come out fastest securing a P3 in class starting position for tomorrows race. For reasons unknown (except maybe strategic) the #99 and #97 would come out P6 and P7 respectively in class. The team were waiting for the cars to be released back to them so that they could analyse data more accurately into what maybe the issue.


In GTE Am the #98 secured P2 in class just behind the championship leading SMP Ferrari which is good considering the points deficit between them after their LM24 disaster.

Unfortunately the #96 wasn't to fare well in qualifying with by the looks of Hall's own lap times, maybe harbouring an issue following an earlier incident leaving them starting at the rare of the grid tomorrow.

The race starts at 13:00Hrs local and can be viewed live in the UK on MotorsTV or on the internet via the Radio Le Mans broadcast.

#TeamAMR

Photo credits - WEC / Aston Martin Racing

Danish team Massive Motorsport return to the European Le Mans Series this weekend for the second of  the five race series and the 4Hrs of Imola.

Having patched up their dented pride and indeed their dented Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 drivers Caspar Elgaard, Kristian Poulsen and Simon Moller will be hoping to replicate their race pace that they demonstrated at Round 1 at Silverstone just a few week ago prior to that momentary lapse in concentration that resulted in their car being clipped by and punted off into the pit wall by then GTC class leading Ferrari.

With the same four other GTC class cars entering this 30 car event there remains every indication the the team shall achieve a good race result at this event. They also have significant data from the circuit having spent a couple of days pre season testing there in March.

Track action kicks off Saturday morning with a 90 minute Free Practice session followed by another 90 minute session later that afternoon. The GTE/GTC qualifying doesn't take place until the Sunday morning with the race itself starting at 14:00Hrs local.

Full TV coverage in the UK will be available on the Motors TV platform.

Photo credits - Matt Hunter / ELMS

Young Driver AMR experienced a tough weekend at the second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. After six hours of close racing, Marco Sørensen and Christoffer Nygaard finished sixth in their Aston Martin Racing entered Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin Vantage GTE in the GTE Pro class. The race at Spa brought not the result Young Driver AMR was looking for, but delivered valuable data for the next round, the 24h hours of Le Mans, where Young Driver AMR aims to repeat it’s class win.

After Sørensen/Nygaard qualified fifth, Sørensen took the start of the race and was fighting for a podium position, while he was in the car for a double stint. After two hours of driving, Nygaard took over for a double stint before handing the Aston Martin back to Sørensen for the final part of the race. After running as high as third in the opening stages of the race, the second part was more difficult and at the end, a tire gamble didn’t pay off. While the Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin was the car with the least amount of time lost during pit stops in it’s class, the team decided to double stint one set of tires at the end, but this didn’t pay off.

„It was not an easy race for us today“, Jan Struve of Young Driver AMR said. „It was a really exiting race with very close gaps and we were a bit unlucky. During practise it rained a lot and we were lacking running time in the dry to work on the set-up, but this was the same for everybody. Many of our competitors struggled today and made mistakes, but we were not able to take advantage out of this. But we also take many positives away from Spa. We made some significant improvements in certain areas, with improved pit stops being the most visible. We collected data in our preparation for Le Mans, which is the most important race of the season. Congratulations to our sister car of Aston Martin Racing, which won the class today.”

Source - Young Driver AMR

Story of the day was simply rain, rain and yet more rain, all unfortunately falling on the Spa-Francorchamps circuit for most of the day preventing any real advantages race simulation set up runs for most of the teams.

Conditions became so bad during FP1 that the session was red flagged for over half an hour following what could have been a very serious collision between an Audi and Toyota prototypes.

Free Practice 1 - the leading AMR was the #99 car just 7/10ths of a second behind the GTE class leading Porsche and Ferrari's with the #97 car just behind. Jonny Adam was also getting another taste of the V8 Vantage GTE sharing the #95 car with its regular drivers Christoffer Nygaard and Marco Sorensen in Nikki Thiims absence. There was some speculation Adam was needed of rthe race as well because Nygaard was also nursing a slight back complaint but at the end of the day Adam is required back at Rockingham on Saturday for British GT qualifying with Beechdean.


The #98 Northwest car was the leading GTE Am car in the AMR garage with the #96 car five places back.

Weather conditions for Free Practice 2 were no better than earlier with cars now having to deal with standing water across parts of the circuit as well as very low track temperatures and spray hanging in the air. The #99 car was again the leader of the AMR bunch during this session again behind one of the Manthey Porsche's.

With ongoing driver coaching from his Pro counterparts the #96 car of Goethe/Hall/Castellacci was however able to leapfrog the #98 on the timing screens before conditions became so bad that most teams sat out the remainder of the session.

With the third and final Free Practice session early tomorrow afternoon with qualifying later into the afternoon we just hope that the weather improves just for safety's sake if nothing else.

The FIA WEC have just confirmed a provisional 34 car entry for the second round of the 2015 World Endurance Championship at Spa Francorchamps on May 2nd.

As repeated again this year, Spa is the last chance for all the teams to test and configure their cars and drivers in readiness for the 'big one' at Le Mans for both the official test at the end of May and also the double point scoring round being the 24Hr race itself just a couple of weeks later.

The entry list confirms that Aston Martin Racing shall be competing at Spa with a revised driver from the one that race at the previous round at Silverstone for both their #95 and #97 Pro cars.

Due to his other Porsche Carrera Cup Germany racing commitments Nikki Thiim shall be absent from the #95 'Dane Train' at Spa leaving just Chritsoffer Nygaard and Marco Sorensen to better their present fourth position.

Over in the #97 AMR regulars Darren Turner and Stefan Mucke are joined once again by the McLaren GT driver Rob Bell in order to bring him up to speed once again with the V8 Vantage prior to Le Mans.

The remaining #99 Pro car remains unchanged as do the two #96 and #98 Am cars.

Despite the virtual lock out of the GTE Pro and GTE Am during qualifying, Aston Martin Racing were unable to convert that dominance into more than just a single podium finish by the end of the 6Hrs of Silverstone.

With the Young Driver "Dane Train' having put their #95 Gulf liveried Vantage GTE onto pole at what was their first race since elevating up to Pro status, having their sister #97 and #99 Pro cars immediately behind them and with the 2014 class champions apparently languishing further down the lap charts all weekend - all appeared good for AMR on paper at least!

The weather on race day was also due to play 'ball' being unseasonably warm and and dry all in direct contrast to last year's race, but there was to be a very strong prevailing wind running the length of the International Pit Straight that would ultimately plague all the cars for the whole race.

The race day rituals started bright and early for the #95 and #99 crews having made some small adjustments to the cars over night the team made the prudent choice of running both cars back to Scrutineering just to doubly check that the cars remained within permitted parameters. Then, just before the public were let loose down the pit lane for the customary pit walk last minute, driver change practices became the order of the morning.


Prior to the race the cars presented themselves at the grid, but this time they backed themselves towards the pit wall Le Mans style (new for this year). Then, having the cleared the grid from the VIP grid walkers the cars were careful choreographed by the leading safety car so that the thunderous grid would be ready to hit the start/finish line bang on 12 noon, ready to be unleashed for what was to be the first round of the 2015 World Endurance Championship.

By the end of the first lap the AMR Pro cars were holding their starting 1-2-3 station relative to one another  and even mixing it with some P1 cars for the first couple of corners. Soon Nikki Thiim in the #95 Young Driver AMR began putting in a series of very quick laps to pull away from Darren Turner in the #97 who had himself just taken the #99 car of Richie Stanaway for second in class. At one point Thiim's lead was over twenty seconds.


Stanaway soon came under intense pressure from the chasing Manthey Porsche's and earned himself two track limit warnings in quick succession for pushing the boundaries of track limits at Turn 9 Copse. Back in GTE Am Stuart Hall in the #96 Gulf Racing car had already dispatched several cars who started in front of him and was hounding the rear bumper of stable mate Pedro Lamy in the #98. They would enjoy countless laps of 'enjoyable' racing together.

As a whole, and up till this point things were looking fairly good for the Aston Martin Racing cars in both classes. The turning point came just before the first hour with the first Full Course Yellow of the race due to a P2 hitting the barriers at Copse followed by a subsequent Full Course Yellow soon after.


The inability of the Vantage GTE to hold enough fuel to take it much past the hour mark was the achilles heal from last year and despite Thiim entering the pit lane with a twenty second advantage over his rivals the ability of both the Manthey Porsche's and AF Corse Ferrari's to positively make use of the these FCY's would see each AMR cascade down the order sheet as and when they made their scheduled stops. The problem wasn't of their making but they were to be the victims of the situation that presented itself.

In GTE Am the #98 Lamy/Dalla Lana/Lauda car was fairing a little better by maintaining a top position throughout the pit stop cycles of the leading GTE Am cars. In the #96 a hobbling Roald Goethe exited his #96 car to allow new boy, Francesco Castellacci to have his first competitive race of the weekend and in the Gulf Vantage.


At the end of each of the 3rd, 4th and 5th hours of the race the story on track remained the same. The Pro AMR cars, headed by the #95 Young Driver car were still playing catch up with the class leading #51 AF Corse of Vilander/Bruni who had at the end had a winning margin of over a lap to the fourth placed #95 AMR.

Turner and Mucke would finish in P5 with the #99 MacDowall/Rees/Stanaway car finishing P6.

From a team perspective Sundays results have to be taken away in a positive light. The cars showed good outright pace for not just qualifying but also average race pace in comparison with the Ferrari's and Porsche's. The team acknowledges that time was lost to their rivals during each of the pit stop cycles to a point where the #95 and #98 both had to do a 'splash and dash' in the final five minutes of the race just to make the chequered flag.

Without performance breaks for the team this mileage deficit is going to be hard to overcome to allow the cars to compete with the AF Corse Ferrari's and Manthey Porsche's on a 'level field' and without having to rely upon the misfortune of others.


In GTE Am Pedro Lamy brought home the #98 Northwest sponsored Vantage car that he shares with Paul Dalla Lana and Mathias Lauda for a fine GTE Am class victory that was thoroughly deserved, not just by them but by the team as a whole.

"Pedro and Mathias did a great job to get us a strong lead and this meant that when we had to do a quick ‘splash and dash’ we were still able to take the win. They both did a fantastic job!" said Dalla Lana afterwards.

The other #96 Am car of Roald Goethe, Stuart Hall and Francesco Castellacci finished two laps down to the winning #98 car fourth in class in what has to be remembered as only their first race back in the WEC having taken 'a year out' in 2014 so that was still a decent result for them as well.


Round two of the WEC is at Spa Francorchamps on May 2nd - the last real race simulation before the big one at Le Mans in June and round three!! From what we have seen this weekend at Silverstone we know that we are going to be in for a good race.

The waiting is almost over and the start of the 2015 World Endurance Championship will soon be upon  us as the opening race kicks off at Silverstone in just six days time.

Since the final race of 2014 in Brazil many personnel changes have been made within the Aston Martin Racing family - drivers have come, drivers have gone as well as squad names and sponsors. The upshot of it all is that we will be left with five V8 Vantage GTE's having full season WEC entry status, a net rise of one car compared to last year and evenly spread over the GTE Pro (3 cars) and GTE Am (2 cars) classifications.

Other changes involve the Young Driver AMR squad moving up to GTE Pro with a slight change in driver line up with Kristian Poulsen (see Massive Motorsports ELMS story) being replaced with Marco Sorenson and Christoffer Nygaard returning to the team after a year away with its then sister car. Nikki Thiim completes the #95 car driver line up.


Another realignment is that last years partner team Craft Bamboo have elected to take a sabbatical from this years WEC having had something of a steep learning curve last year. As a result the #99 cars driver line up is retain by Aston Martin Racing but will change slightly - they retain the driving services of Fernando Rees and Alex MacDowall but this year will obtain the talents of last years 'super sub' Richie Stanaway.

The #99 car will also retain the beautiful blue and yellow Valero livery for at least part of the season.


Completing the GTE Pro entry is the most successful AMR driver line that there has been to date in Darren Turner and Stefan Mucke. The most notable change in their #97 car entry will be its livery and sponsor detail with the car dropping the more traditional Gulf livery in favour of a new red an yellow livery of the teams technical partner Hanergy.


Over in the GTE Am class we see the return of the #98 car and the 2014 GTE Am runners up of Paul Dalla Lana and Pedro Lamy joined this year by Mathias Lauda. Although a new driver line up for 2015 the squad have been able to get decent mileage under their belts from their 2015 TUSCC entry which features as an additional commitment to their WEC entry. That provision has also allowed the likes of Turner and Mucke to gain precious GTE pre season mileage.

Joining them in GTE Am for the 2015 season will be the Gulf Racing Vantage GTE of Roald Goethe, Stuart Hall and Aston Martin new comer Francessco Castellacci. Having spent last year competing in the European Le Mans Series and missing out on the 24Hr of Le Mans this car and driver line up will have a rapturous return. 



Obviously, the #96 Gulf Racing car shall retain its Gulf Racing livery although you will be now have noticed that it has evolved slightly from last year!!

Photo Credits - Aston Martin Racing