The #97 Aston Martin Racing team of Darren Turner and Stefan Mücke finished 5th in the GTE-Pro class at this year’s FIA World Endurance Championship season opener, the 2015 6 Hours of Silverstone.
During qualifying, the #97 Aston Martin Vantage GTE found itself disadvantaged on the straights due to a communications error, making it run the wet aero set up used earlier in the day. However, thanks to strong lap times from Turner and Mücke, the team qualified on P3, behind two other Aston Martins.
At the start of the race, Turner overtook Richie Stanaway in the #99 Aston Martin in turn one. Although in second place, he didn’t have the pace to reach the #95 of Nicki Thiim who led the class.
All Aston Martins had pitted early in the race, which meant that their rivals could have the advantage of pitting when the Full Course Yellow came out.
“That’s how it rolls with the Full Course Yellows,” said Turner. “They stabilise the race in a fair way but they can also give a huge advantage to those who are coming up to their pit stop window.”
By the end of the race, Turner and Mücke were in 5th place, and collected 10 points for the championship.
“It certainly wasn’t the weekend we were hoping for but after the first pit stops it could have been a lot worse. The last couple of days have been good experience for the team.
“We will learn from this weekend and when we reconvene at Spa in a few weeks’ time I think we will have made real progress. All five Aston Martins ran faultlessly today and we had success with the #98 car in the GTE-Am class so that was a nice result for the team and the drivers in that car.”
The next race for Darren Turner in WEC will be the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, on May 2.
