Young Driver AMR is back on the podium in the FIA World Endurance Championship after a long period of four month. Christoffer Nygaard, Kristian Poulsen und Nicki Thiim drove the Aston Martin Racing entered Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin Vantage GTE to a strong second place finish at the series premiere at the «Circuit of the Americas» at Austin, Texas. The Young Driver AMR trio came 1,7 seconds short of a possible second win of the season after six hours of racing. Due to the third podium finish of the season, Nygaard und Poulsen move up to sixth place in the GTE-Am-class drivers classification.
Nicki Thiim started from second position in a race, which should be become one of the fiercely contested of the season with no less then 13 lead changes in the GTE-Am-class. Thiim, who raced in the United States for the second time with Young Driver AMR, took the class lead during the first lap. The young Dane and Nygaard, who then took over from Thiim, only lost the lead during the pit stops, but in the latter stages of the race, a battle with a sister Aston Martin in the GTE-Am class developed.
Poulsen, who brought the Aston Martin then to the finish line, led in the final hour of the race, when he got under pressure from another Vantage GTE. Poulsen defended incredibly well and responded with super quick lap times, but in the heat of the battle, the rivalling Aston Martin took the lead with 12 minutes to go. Nygaard/Poulsen/Thiim eventually missed the victory by a margin of 1,7 seconds after six hours of racing.
„Our car was great and super quick, but during the race a Ferrari blocked us and drove really strange, that forced us to change our strategy”, Nygaard explained. “The new strategy didn’t play out perfect, but at the end, we are back on the podium again and second place is a great result.”
„I’m really happy with the podium finish, the team and our drivers did again a fantastic job”, Young Driver AMR´s Jan Struve said. „We missed the victory by a bit, but it feels good to be back on the podium again. We changed the strategy twice during the race and had a nice battle with a sister car of Aston Martin Racing for he class victory. Kristian Poulsen was brilliant at the end and turned super quick lap times, so I’m really happy with the result. To lose a race by 1,7 seconds is really no shame, we can be proud of the result and are really looking forward now to the next round in Japan in four weeks.”