The Young Driver Aston Martin Racing team had a fantastic performance for their debut race in the GTE-Pro class of the FIA World Endurance Championship, finishing 4th in class but also as the best-placed Aston Martin in the 2015 6 Hours of Silverstone.
The all-Danish team of Nicki Thiim, Marco Sørensen and Christoffer Nygaard started from class pole position, and after 6 hours of racing at the historic British circuit, finished 4th, ahead of all four of the other Aston Martin Vantage GTE’s.
Starting from pole position in the GTE-Pro class, Thiim kept his lead for the first hour of the race. However, the car dropped to 4th after two Full Course Yellows and a delay in the pit stop. The car kept this position for the remainder of the race, despite fighting hard for a podium position.
“I had quite an [intense] race” says Nygaard. “During my stint I had a Porsche in my mirror, which kept me very busy. In this class, every second counts and I couldn’t afford to let the Porsche pass me.
“I did my job this weekend, Nicki was in a league of his own and Marco had a very impressive debut in our team. I’m quite happy with this driver combination. A podium would have been possible today, but we couldn’t fight for the victory as the Ferraris were too quick.”
According to Team Owner Jan Struve, “We had the quickest car in our class and clocked the fastest race lap, but the Full Course Yellows weren’t in our favour of our strategy and that eventually cost some positions.
“We also lost some time during the pit stops and have now to analyse this in order to be better prepared for the next race at Spa in three weeks. The performance of our three drivers was impressive today. Marco drove his first race in a GT car today and he was not only very fast, but also very consistent.”
The next race for the Young Driver AMR team will be the WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps on May 2.
