Aston Martin Racing took a double victory at the Circuit of the Americas, winning in both the GTE Pro and GTE Am classes.
Victory in GTE Pro went to the #99 Vantage GTE of Bruno Senna and Fred Makowiecki, who started from pole and fought off numerous challengers throughout the six hour race, crossing the line 15 seconds clear of the second placed machine.
“That was an awesome weekend!” comments Senna. “We were quick all week and we were very competitive. It’s great to share this WEC win with Fred – it’s a proud moment for us. We’re both so pleased to be here and we’re grateful to our sponsors that made it possible.”
It looked as if the #95 car of Nicki Thiim, Christoffer Nygaard and Kristian Poulsen were set to take victory in GTE Am, but a late charge from their team-mates in the #96, Stuart Hall and Jamie Campbell-Walter, saw the British drivers take the lead in the dying minutes of the race. Campbell-Walter crossed the line just 1.7 seconds ahead of Poulsen, with the rest of the chasing pack almost a minute further down the road.
“What a fantastic result!” comments Campbell-Walter. “Stuart did a fantastic job and the guys in the pit lane put in a faultless performance. I had a good battle with Kristian – I had to be careful because he’s a team-mate. He put up a good fight but I managed to get past with 15 minutes to go.”
The high kerbs of the Circuit of the Americas caught out the other two Aston Martins, both suffering damaged floors as a result of contact with the kerbs. The retirement of the #97 Vantage GTE means it sacrifices its championship lead and drops 10 points back with just three races remaining.
“We took a significant step forward this weekend,” concluded Team Principal John Gaw. “We’ve improved our position in the manufacturer’s championship and we’re now leading the GTE Am championship. We won both classes, so we must be happy, but we want to continue to push for good results for all our cars.”
“We now head to Asia for the Six Hours of Fuji, which was one of our toughest challenges last year. It will be a real test for our engineers and drivers but we look forward to that as we strive to maximise the performance for Aston Martin.”
