The start of the season was brilliant with a win of the all Danish Young Driver AMR/Aston Martin Racing trio Christoffer Nygaard, Kristian Poulsen and Allan Simonsen at the opening round at Silverstone three weeks ago. But for the Aston Martin team, it was only a waypoint on the route to Young Driver AMR´s ultimate goal: The 24h of Le Mans in France in six weeks time.
The second chapter is weekend’s second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC), which will take place at the infamous Spa-Francorchamps circuit in the Belgian Ardennes, one of the most beautiful and most challenging racetracks in the world. The Belgian round of World Championship is the last race of the Young Driver AMR/Aston Martin Racing-Aston Martin Vantage GTE before the 24h of Le Mans at the end of June and thus considered as a dress rehearsal for the legendary endurance race.
The timetable of the second round of the World Endurance Championship at Spa-Francorchamps is very tight: In contrast to the usual three-day-events, it’s only a two -day-event, with two practise sessions and qualifying on Friday and the race on Saturday. But in opposite to the first round at Silverstone, where at the three drivers still were new to the V8-powered Aston Martin Vantage GTE, the all Danish driver line up has now a race and a class victory under their belt and all three drivers are also no strangers to the Belgian track. Nygaard, Poulsen and Simonsen already competed in multiple events at Spa, including the famous 6-hour race. Kristian Poulsen even took a outright class victory in 2009, when he won the LMP2-class in his very first race in a prototype racecar.
After the win in the first round, the goal of Aston Martin Racing/Young Driver AMR is eager to make it two in row and take another podium finish at Spa-Francorchamps. „We should be very quick at Spa. The track suits our car very well and after a great result at Silverstone, I’m also quite optimistic about Spa”, Allan Simonsen says. „The victory at the first round was just perfect, as it’s great motivation for the entire team. A win always boosts the team. If this happens in the very first race, it’s gives everybody a huge extra motivation.”
Source : Young Driver AMR