Aston Martin Racing maintained their 100% pole position record for qualifying as they took the honours in both GTE Pro and GTE Am ahead of the 90th 24 Hours Of Le Mans.
Frenchman Frédéric Makowiecki set the fastest time of the five Aston Martin’s in the final moments of the third qualifying session to take class pole position ahead of team-mate Stefan Mücke who gave everything only to lose out to the sister car.
In the GTE Am class the all Danish lineup lead by Allan Simonsen topped the timesheets from the start of qualifying through to then final session when he bettered his time as the session came to a close.
Jamie Campbell-Walter grabbed third place in GTE Am while team-mate Pedro Lamy took fifth as they focused on maximising driver time across the fragmented sessions.
“We came here with the aim of qualifying on pole in both classes” said Aston Martin Racing Team Principal John Gaw.
“We are pleased to have started off our 24 Hours of Le Mans campaign so positively. The qualifying sessions were a little frustrating because of the rain and red flags meaning little changed position-wise until the final 15 minutes.
“We did well to firmly secure both pole positions in the dying minutes.” he added
With qualifying out of the way the team look ahead to the grueling task of bringing the car home after 24 hours of racing, Gaw is well aware of this.
“We all know, however, that in a 24-hour race, starting positions aren’t too important. We need to ensure we continue the reliability that we demonstrated at Silverstone and Spa to get all our cars to the end of the race safely and without issues.”
Pole-sitter Makowiecki commented “It’s a nice feeling because I waited a long time to work with Aston Martin Racing. For me it’s a great pleasure to get a good result for the team. It’s the first step towards winning the race this weekend.”
Aston Martin Qualifying positions:
GTE Pro
1st – Bruno Senna, Fred Makowiecki and Rob Bell #99
2nd – Darren Turner, Stefan Mücke and Peter Dumbreck #97
5th – Pedro Lamy, Paul Dalla Lana and Bill Auberlen #98
GTE Am
1st – Allan Simonsen, Kristian Poulsen and Christoffer Nygaard #95
3rd – Jamie Campbell-Walter, Stuart Hall and Roald Goethe #96
