Aston Martin wins in Mexico; Dempsey Proton extend points lead

The manufacturer-led LMGTE Pro class was won by the No.95 Aston Martin Racing Vantage of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sørensen, the Danish duo taking their first victory of the 2017 season and a second consecutive win in Mexico for the British manufacturer.  

The Aston Martin had a tough, race-long duel with the No.71 Ferrari 458 GTE of Davide Rigon and Sam Bird who had started from pole position.  An enthusiastic crowd of 45,000 over the weekend enjoyed all that the WEC had to offer.

The AF Corse Ferrari crossed the finish line first but had a penalty of 10s added to its result for a speeding infringement under a Full Course Yellow caution period.  They were classified second in class, 9.1 seconds behind the Aston Martin and the result was good enough to keep Ferrari in the lead of the GT Manufacturers World Championship.  

Third in LMGTE Pro was the No.91 Porsche 911 RSR of Richard Lietz and Frédéric Makowiecki who battled through to take their fourth podium of the season, and in 4th was the No.67 Ford GT of Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell.  The result keeps the British driver pairing at the top of the GT Drivers World Championship standings.

The course didn’t run so smoothly for some of the other LMGTE Pro competitors, with the No.51 Ferrari and No.66 Ford GT coming together several times and contact between the No.92 Porsche and a LMGTE Am competitor knocking it out of contention early on.  The No.66 Ford served no fewer than three penalties during the race, eventually finishing 8th and last in class.

Aston Martin Racing’s delight at winning helped to temper the disappointment of the No.97 entry of Darren Turner, Jonny Adam and Daniel Serra who suffered repeated and unresolved brake issues.  The time spent in the pits meant that the car was not classified in the final results.

LMGTE Am was a Porsche v Aston Martin battle throughout and it was the No.77 Dempsey Proton Porsche 911 RSR of Christian Ried, Matteo Cairoli and Marvin Dienst who crossed the line to take their second consecutive class victory this year.  The result gives the German/Italian line up a 10-point lead over the Aston Martin Racing trio in the standings.

The No.98 Aston Martin trio of Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda placed second after leading earlier in the race, while Gulf Racing took its first podium of the season as Ben Barker, Mike Wainwright and Nick Foster completed their best race of the 2017 season to date.

Heavy showers had been expected in the closing stages of the race, but in the end there were only a few spots of rain in the final 30 minutes which didn’t affect any of the results.  Next stop on the 2017 calendar will be Circuit of The Americas in two weeks for Lone Star Le Mans on Saturday 16th September.

To find all provisional race results click HERE, for race facts CLICK HERE and for championship standings CLICK HERE