Darren Turner Looks Forward to the 'Big One'
Aston Martin Racing's Darren Turner set the fastest LMGTE lap time during yesterday's Official Test ahead of the 24 Hours of Le Mans on the 13/14 June. The two 4-hour sessions were tricky for all the teams with the changable weather providing both dry and wet conditions in both sessions.
After posting a 3m58.069 lap in the no97 Aston Martin Vantage V8 Darren Turner spoke of the test and his thoughts for the coming race in the press conference at the end day
“It’s been a very good test for the team, we’ve got through a lot of the stuff you want to get out of the way before you come back for the main race, things like understanding the fuel capacity and where the fuel can run to on the lap. We’ve ticked those boxes and now we can come back in a week’s time and concentrate on the balance for the race. It’s been mixed weather for everyone, I’m sure most teams haven’t been able to achieve all their goals but we make the most of the situation and at least we now have an idea what the car will be like in the wet as well as the dry.
“Regulation wise the cars are pretty much the same as last year. Obviously there are some improvements we have found over the winter, mainly in reliability and in the pitstops, where the guys have worked very hard and improvements have been made. It’s very subtle and it is the same for all the GT manufacturers. It should mean, like last year, there will be some close battles between everyone and this is a good thing from both the driver’s point of view and for the spectators. If we can keep it nice and close it will make a great show.
“The race here at Le Mans is going to be as hard as ever; there is a lot of pressure. This will be my fourth 24 hour race this season but it is definitely the one that has the most pressure. Because this is the big race of the year, all eyes are every driver. We’ve been very close to winning in the last couple of years but it hasn’t quite happened and it feels like we really need to do it this year.”
Jeff Carter
