FIA GT1: Aston Martin Young Driver team claims maximum points through torrential rain in Beijing

Sat 10th, Goldenport Park, Beijing – The Young Driver Aston Martin team completed a stunning double in a dramatic ninth round of the championship in Beijing. The combination of Darren Turner and Stefan Mucke in the No.8 car took the chequered flag in the Championship Race to record their first victory of the 2011 season. The result crowned a perfect two days for the German squad after Tomas Enge and Alex Muller in the No.7 car had taken the honours in the Qualifying Race earlier in the day.

It meant that Young Driver took the maximum 43 points in Beijing to climb to the top of the teams’ standings. Turner and Mucke also move to second in thedrivers’ table.

Third place for Lucas Luhr and Michael Krumm in the No.23 JRM Nissan GT-R consolidated their lead of the drivers’ championship.

The race started and ended under the safety after a heavy downpour before the start made for treacherous conditions at the Goldenport circuit. The rate of attriition was high with only nine of the 18 starters running at the chequered flag.

It was looking like an Aston Martin 1-2-3 for the second consecutive race. The No.4 Hexis car of Andrea Piccini (Christian Hohenadel) was leading the race with six minutes left but like so many before him, Piccini pirouetted the car into the gravel at T7.

Enge in the No.7 had started the Championship Race from pole but there was a three-way shuffle at the pit stop. Turner in the No.8 got out ahead of Enge’s co-driver Muller while Piccini in the Hexis No.4 leapfrogged them both to grab the lead before his mishap.

The No.41 Marc VDS Ford GT (Maxime Martin and Bertrand Baguette), the Qualifying Race pole-sitter, staged a great fightback through the field from 14th place to finish fifth (10 points).

Marc Basseng (Markus Winkelhock) in the No.38 car spun into the gravel at T1 soon after the start while Dominik Schwager parked the sister No.37 All-Inkl car at T13 under the same safety car just 15 minutes into the race.

The driver title ambitions of Basseng and Winkelhock took a big blow. Luhr and Krumm now head the standings on 131 points from Turner and Mucke on 120. The All-Inkl pair slipped to third on 101. Eleven drivers have a mathematical chance of taking the crown at the season-ending round 10 in San Luis.

In the teams’ championship, the German Lamborghini squad dropped to fourth (182) behind Young Driver (224), JRM Racing (216) and Hexis (195).

Nico Verdonck (Exim Bank Team China Corvette No.12) and Enrique Bernoldi (Sumo Power No.20 Nissan GT-R) provided great entertainment in a heated squabble over fifth place in the closing stages.

The honours eventually went to Verdonck even though Bernoldi crossed ahead of him af the flag. The stewards ruled Bernoldi’s overtaking move under the safety car was illegal and relegated him to sixth.

Bernoldi’s demotion handed the Team China car fifth place – welcome cheer for home fans.

Ho-Pin Tung and Jeroen Den Boer in the No.11 Team China Corvette were running 11th, just out of the points, before Den Boer became yet another casualty with eight minutes left.

Tomorrow the spotlight shifts to Beijing’s iconic Olympic Park where the Beijing GT1 World Supercars event takes place.

The GT1 race cars will take part in a demonstration street race on a street circuit layout that runs between the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube. It promises to be a spectacular climax to GT1 World’s successful tour of China.

Stefan Mücke-nr8 Young Driver AMR Aston Martin DB9
“My race behind the Safety Car was very boring but the decision was correct, there was a lot of standing water on the track.  Running behind the Safety Car was quite difficult and on the first fast lap a few cars went off.  But in the end it was quite a boring race; in total I did 4 or 5 race laps, which wasn’t very much. Darren did a great job and the team did a perfect pitstop.  We now have a lot of weight in the car for Argentina but it will be good to go there and fight for the Word title.”

Darren Turner-nr8 Young Driver AMR Aston Martin DB9
“The team did a great job with the pitstop.  We kept our position, we came in second and went out in second; we leapfrogged our teammates but we were behind the Hexis car. It was very difficult conditions out there for everyone, which everyone could see by the amount of cars going off.  I just had to stay on the circuit and get to the flag.

“I’m looking forward to running at the Olympic Park tomorrow, another day out in China.  Hopefully we wont had too many sore heads from celebrating tonight and we’ll put on a good show tomorrow.”

“We all really enjoyed our visits to Ordos and Beijing, I think everyone has enjoyed seeing the Great Wall and the Forbidden City and the other sights around the city.  On the track the drivers are rivals but off of it we enjoy each others company and we have had a great time.”

Tomas Enge-Nr7 Young Driver AMR Aston Martin DB9
“What a great day.  The whole weekend has been great for Aston and the Young Driver team.  We had both cars doing well, challenging for pole and taking the top two places in both races today.  So we are really happy, it’s just unfortunate we slipped from P1 again like we did in Silverstone but it’s great for the team.”

Alex Muller-Nr7 Young Driver AMR Aston Martin DB9
“This is a good team result with a 1-2 in both races but as Tomas said it is a bit disappointing.  We’ve now won two Qualifying Races and we’ve not yet made it in the Championship Race.  Thanks to the team, they did a good pitstop; we probably pitted too early, but otherwise it was pretty good.”

Lucas Luhr-Nr23 JR Motorsports Nissan GT-R
“Considering where we started the Qualifying Race it has gone pretty well.  This was the first time this year we didn’t get into Q3 because I decided to stick the car in the gravel in Q1.  We can be really happy as we finished 4th this morning and we finished 3rd this afternoon, so thanks to Nissan and to the team.  We had decent pitstops today and we had good race pace.  Even in Ordos we had good race pace but we were struggling on the pitstops there and that was definitely better here.  The weather also helped a little bit, it was hard to keep the car on the track at times but we were OK and Michael did a fantastic job.  With a little bit of luck he could’ve been second, but this is good for us.”

Michael Krumm-Nr23 JR Motorsports Nissan GT-R
“As Lucas said we are really happy with this result after the qualifying performance.  We did come here with the intention to win the race but I have to say the Aston Martins have done a better job and they deserved the victory.  I pushed as hard as I could but the conditions were dangerous.  I pushed a little bit more at times and I closed the gap but then I went to a risk level where I thought this isn’t a good idea and I’m going to crash into the pitwall, so I backed off.  You could see the other guys were having similar issues, so it was a very tough race.  I’m really glad we got past the nr41 Ford and the Nissan GT-R went really well and we come away from here still leading the championship.”

Qualifying Race

Aston Martin romped to a podium clean sweep in a rain-soaked Qualifying Race in Beijing. The Nr7 Young Driver DB9 of Tomas Enge and Alex Muller took the race victory at Goldenport circuit from their stablemates Darren Turner and Stefan Mücke in the Nr8. Third was the Hexis AMR Nr4 of Andrea Piccini and Christian Hohenadel from 10th position.

The race finished under the safety car after local boy Ho-Pin Tung spun off at T8 and beached the Exim Bank Team China Nr11 Corvette with eight minutes remaining. The car was towed from the scene as the clocked ticked down to the chequered flag.

The Nr23 Nissan JRM GT-R of Lucas Luhr and Michael Krumm finished fourth to add three points to their advantage over their closest rivals in the drivers’ championship Marc Basseng and Markus Winkelhock.

The All-Inkl.com Münnich Motorsport pair had been running strongly in second place behind the Nr7 Aston until a drive-through penalty for a pit lane infringement. The time lost in the pit lane dropped them down to 12th place and out of the points.

The Nissan duo now have 116 points to the Lamborghini pair’s 101. Hohenadel and Piccini are third on 100.

It was an impressive all-round display from Aston Martin with all four cars finishing in the top five.

The final point went to the Nr9 Belgian Racing Ford GT of Christoffer Nygaard and Jonathan Hirschi.

The pole-sitter, the Nr41 Marc VDS Ford GT of Bertrand Baguette and Maxime Martin was first to visit the famed Goldenport gravel at T7 after just five laps.

The safety car, a common sight over the past two days, was deployed while the car was towed out and Baguette brought it back to the pits and into retirement.

In the teams’ standings, Hexis AMR (190) gained ground on leaders JRM (193) while Young Driver (181) moved to within a point of third-placed All-Inkl.com Münnich Motorsport (182).

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