Aston Martin Racing has qualified on pole in both GTE classes at the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) Six Hours of Sao Paulo, with its four V8 Vantages finishing within the top five GTEs overall, the best manufacturer result in the championship to date.
The #97 Vantage GTE of Darren Turner (GB) and Stefan Mücke (DE) set the fastest average lap time of the 20-minute session.
“The plan is to win this weekend so we’ve got off to a good start,” commented Turner. “Last year we were close to the win, there was less than a second between us. This is one of my favourite tracks and with the new surface it’s a joy to drive.”
“Yes, the team did a great job,” added Mücke. “With the new asphalt the track is totally different so we were starting from scratch but we progressed really well through practice and in qualifying the set-up was spot on.”
Also in the GTE Pro class, the #99 Craft Bamboo Racing team recorded its second best qualifying result of the year with local driver Fernando Rees (BR) and team-mate Darryl O’Young who, along with Alex MacDowall (GB), will start from third on the grid.
It was the #98 Vantage GTE of Pedro Lamy (PT) and Christoffer Nygaard that qualified on pole in the GTE Am class and fourth overall GTE. It was the third pole of the year for the team that includes Canadian driver Paul Dalla Lana.
“The car was fast and it was really nice to drive,” commented Lamy. “Before the session we knew it would be tough and it was really close at the end but we managed to make pole, which is great. It’s a long race and we still have a lot to do.”
“The #95 team is so strong so we knew it would be hard to beat them,” added Nygaard. “Pedro did a fantastic job to go quicker than Nicki and then I knew that I had to go quicker than David. They never make it easy for us but we did it.”
The double 2014 GTE Am trophy winners, the #95 Young Driver Vantage GTE, qualified second in class and fifth overall, less than a tenth of a second behind the pole sitter thanks to laps from Nicki Thiim (DN) and David Heinemeier Hansson (DN) who will be joined by Kristian Poulsen (DN) for the race.
“We came to Interlagos with the aim of finishing the year in the WEC on a high,” commented Aston Martin Racing Team Principal John Gaw. “We got off to a great start in qualifying with all four of our cars in the top five overall, but it’s a long race and we need to play everything perfectly in order to take home some silverware on Sunday.
“We think track position here is important this year with the new surface and, with such close competition, we chose an aggressive qualifying strategy to optimize our starting positions and all went to plan today.”
The Six Hours of Sao Paulo starts tomorrow at 1300hrs local time.