The Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Craft Racing AMR stormed to victory in round 2 of the GT Asia series held in Motegi, Japan this past weekend. Hong Kong’s Frank Yu shared driving duties with Germany’s Stefan Muecke and the pairing proved successful, as they were one of the strongest cars throughout the weekend.
In qualifying, the conditions varied as it began to rain midway through the first qualifying session and gradually got worse as the qualifying progressed into Q2.
Muecke took advantage early on in Q1 and laid down the fastest lap of the qualifying session to take pole position for race 1 by a margin of 1.1 seconds over the Porsche of Li Zhi Cong. In the Q2, due to the damp conditions, they opted for Yu to go out on the same tires from Mucke’s previous run. Despite this, Yu still put in a strong lap in a close qualifying session to finish P5 in Q2 out of a 17 car field.
In race 1, Muecke quickly took advantage of his pole position start and pulled a comfortable lead to the rest of the field as they all fought for position on the wet track. The pit stop window opened after 25 minutes and Craft Racing AMR made a quick stop as Yu got into the car and came back out in the lead of the race. Yu soon began to struggle with his tires during his stint and was later caught by the field behind. Yu held his nerves well under immense pressure and after some strong fights throughout the race, came just short of the podium in P4 overall.
The results of race 1 currently remain provisional as the winning Porsche of Li Zhi Cong was disqualified from the race for a pit stop infringement, but the decision is currently under appeal, which could see the winning car disqualified from the race.
Craft Racing AMR was determined to fight back the next day as the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 has proven to be the quickest car in the field on a dry track. In race 2 under blue skies and sunny conditions, Yu started the race in P5 and drove a strong stint to move the car up as high as P3 before the mandatory pit stops. Handing the car over to the AMR factory driver, Muecke was on a mission to win the race overtaking one Mclaren and two Porsche’s on his charge up through the field into the lead towards the final stages of the race. It was a dramatic finish to the race, which saw Craft Racing AMR take its first victory of the 2013 season in round 2 of the GT Asia series.
The GT Asia now enjoys a 1month break before the action resumes in Okayama, Japan on June 29-30th 2013.
Source : Afos