Strong showing from Aston Martin quartet

29/08/2010

It was a perfect weekend for Tomas Enge and Darren Turner in the Young Driver Aston Martin No.7 at Nurburgring. In fact it was a strong showing for Aston Martin all round with all four cars in the points.

Enge and Turner took both race wins and pole position in round six of the championship. Starting from pole, Turner dominated the race before handing over to Enge, who controlled the pace from the front.

Peter Kox and Christopher Haase steered the Reiter Lamborghini No.24 to their best finish of the season ahead of the Phoenix Racing/Carsport Corvette No.13 of Marc Hennerici and Alex Margaritis after a race-long battle between the two cars.

At the start it was Turner who held the inside line to maintain his lead from pole, followed by Hennerici in the Corvette and Kox in the Lamborghini. Further back there was a collision between the No.33 Triple H Maserati of Altfrid Heger and the No.41 Ford GT of Renaud Kuppens with both cars spinning off to the inside of the exit of turn one.

At the end of the opening lap Turner led by 0.6 seconds ahead of Hennerici with Kox holding station behind the leading pair. Hexis Aston Martin's Clivio Piccione caught and passed the No.25 Reiter Lamborghini of Ricardo Zonta to take fifth place at the start of the second lap.

Piccione then caught the No.5 Matech Competition Ford of Thomas Mutsch, pressurising the German in an effort to move up another place. At the chicane on lap four they touched and Mutsch was forced to cut the corner but retained his fourth place in the process.

Xavier Maassen in the Mad-Croc Corvette was also a spinner at the chicane on the same lap but rejoined further down the field.

Piccione continued to challenge Mutsch for the place and lap seven went down the inside of the Ford on the run into turn one.

Zonta tried to follow but Mutsch turned into the corner and there was a collision that spun the Ford through 180 degrees and delayed the Lamborghini allowing Andrea Bertolini in the No.1 Vitaphone Maserati to move ahead of both drivers. The No.12 Mad Croc Racing Corvette of Mika Salo pitted on lap seven with brake problems.

As the pit window approached Turner held a 6.5 second lead over Hennerici and Kox. Hennerici pitted on lap 13, with Turner following a lap later. The Phoenix Racing Corvette had a slower stop than the Reiter Lamborghini and Haase found himself ahead of the Corvette.

Further back Frederic Makowiecki had moved his Hexis AMR Aston up from 22nd on the grid into the top 10 at the pit stops before coming in to hand over to Yann Clairay on lap 15.

After all the cars had pitted, Enge, now at the wheel of the No.7 Aston had stretched the lead to 13 seconds from Haase in the Reiter Lamborghini and Alex Margaritis in the Phoenix Racing Corvette.

On lap 21 it looked like the fickle Nurburgring weather might come into play as rain was reported on parts of the circuit and some of teams readied Michelin wets. However in the end the rain held off until after the race.

At the finish Enge who crossed the line to taking the first Championship Race win of the year for Aston Martin, with Christopher Haase and Alex Margaritis claiming the other podium positions.

The No.10 Hexis AMR Aston Martin of Jonathan Hirschi finished fourth after a strong performance. The No.8 Young Driver Aston of Stefan Mucke was fifth - the first time all four cars have scored Championship points in a single race this season.

All of the manufacturers except Corvette have taken Championship Race wins this year.

Nurburgring - Championship Race
Pos	Car	Class	Drivers	Car	Time	Laps	Gap	Avgspeed
1	7	GT1	Turner / Enge	Aston Martin DB9	1:00:59.709	30	0.000	248
2	24	GT1	Kox / Haase	Lamborghini Murcielago 670 R-S	1:01:09.256	30	9.547	245
3	13	GT1	Hennerici / Margaritis	Corvette Z06	1:01:12.727	30	13.018	251
4	10	GT1	Piccione / Hirschi	Aston Martin DB9	1:01:13.891	30	14.182	252
5	8	GT1	Nygaard / Mücke	Aston Martin DB9	1:01:14.818	30	15.109	250
6	1	GT1	Bertolini / Bartels	Maserati MC12	1:01:16.201	30	16.492	248
7	9	GT1	Makowiecki / Clairay	Aston Martin DB9	1:01:19.634	30	19.925	253
8	22	GT1	Hughes / Campbell-Walter	Nissan GT - R	1:01:24.543	30	24.834	253
9	34	GT1	Longin / Pier Guidi	Maserati MC12	1:01:24.807	30	25.098	248
10	3	GT1	Wendlinger / Moser	Nissan GT - R	1:01:40.143	30	40.434	252
11	40	GT1	Martin / Leinders	Ford GT	1:01:45.153	30	45.444	244
12	2	GT1	Ramos / Bernoldi	Maserati MC12	1:01:47.300	30	47.591	248
13	5	GT1	Mutsch / Westbrook	Ford GT Matech	1:01:48.542	30	48.833	247
14	25	GT1	Zonta / Kechele	Lamborghini Murcielago 670 R-S	1:01:50.515	30	50.806	246
15	23	GT1	Krumm / Dumbreck	Nissan GT - R	1:01:55.959	30	56.250	258
16	6	GT1	Prost / Jani	Ford GT Matech	1:01:57.482	30	57.773	248
17	41	GT1	Kuppens / Palttala	Ford GT	1:02:05.200	30	1:05.491	246
18	11	GT1	Maassen / Menten	Corvette Z06	1:02:05.723	30	1:06.014	251
19	37	GT1	Basseng / Jäger	Lamborghini Murcielago 670 R-S	1:02:06.214	30	1:06.505	247
20	33	GT1	Heger / Müller	Maserati MC12	1:02:06.788	30	1:07.079	246
21	4	GT1	Ara / Nilsson	Nissan GT - R	1:02:51.377	30	1:51.668	253
22	38	GT1	Schwager / Pastorelli	Lamborghini Murcielago 670 R-S	53:45.271	26	7:14.438	249
23	12	GT1	Salo / Kuismanen	Corvette Z06	1:01:55.406	25	55.697	245