#97 Aston Martin - Photo: Drew Gibson / Aston Martin Racing
Aston Martin's Vantage GTE showed its competitiveness during the first six hours of the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Darren Turner was leading the class after four hours, before handing over to Adrian Fernandez which dropped the car to third. The team used the lengthy safety car break to replace the brakes, dropping it to sixth before Stefan Mucke returned to the wheel.
“I struggled a little with a soft brake pedal early in my stint, but as I learnt to drive around it I started to have a lot of fun,” said Turner. “Aside from that minor issue, the Vantage GTE has been really good to drive, which enabled me to fight hard with the #74 car.
“We had a good, clean battle over many laps; I was quicker on the straights so I could get past, but the other car was strong in the braking zones. We've changed our brakes now so we shouldn't have any issues with them anymore and Stefan will be able to make some progress through the field.”
The GTE Am class #99 car retired after six hours following an earlier accident.
