Silverstone news from GTE Pro and Am

Aston Martin Racing (Pro and Am)

Aston Martin Racing’s 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) programme got off to a near perfect start at the Six Hours of Silverstone today (14 April) with a double victory in the GTE classes.

The #97 V8-powered Vantage GTE, driven by Darren Turner (GB), Stefan Mücke (D) and Bruno Senna (BR), finished in first place in the LMGTE Pro category, while the #95 car of Danish trio Christoffer Nygaard, Kristian Poulsen and Allan Simonsen triumphed in the LMGTE Am class. 

At Aston Martin Racing’s home round of the WEC in Northamptonshire, UK, Pedro Lamy (PT), Paul Dalla Lana (CN) and Frédéric Makowiecki (FR) also put in an impressive performance with third position in the #99 car in LMGTE Pro.  They crossed the line a single lap behind the #97 machine and within 13 seconds of the second-placed car after six hours.

The fourth Gulf-liveried Aston Martin, the #96 car of Jamie Campbell-Walter (GB), Roald Goethe (D) and Stuart Hall (GB), finished fourth in LMGTE Am having been in contention for a podium for the entire race.

For more information including driver quotes, click HERE

Photo:  SILVERSTONE CIRCUIT (TOWCESTER, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, UK), 6 HOURS OF SILVERSTONE, SUNDAY 14TH APRIL 2013.  A delighted Bruno Senna after winning the LMGTEPro category.

AF Corse (Pro and Am)

Kamui Kobayashi celebrated his debut race in the N°71 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 with a podium finish in association with Toni Vi­lander (FIN). The pair came second in the LMGTE Pro category of the 6 Hours of Silverstone, round one of the 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship, and they immediately felt at ease with the car and their technical staff.

Giancarlo Fisichella and Gianmaria Bruni (N°51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia GT2) were fifth in the LMGTE Pro class at the chequered flag. The Italians’ result did not reflect the true potential of their package due to a number of unlucky incidents which affected their race.

Ferrari also finished on the podium in the LMGTE Am category thanks to the third place secured by Enzo Potolicchio, Philippe Peter and Rui Aguas in the N°81 AF Corse-run 8 Star Motorsport 458 Italia.

For more team information click HERE

Photo:  SILVERSTONE CIRCUIT (TOWCESTER, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, UK), 6 HOURS OF SILVERSTONE, SUNDAY 14TH APRIL 2013. The No.71 AF Corse Ferrari holding off the No.92 Porsche AG Team Manthey 911 RSR.

Porsche AG

The new Porsche 911 RSR narrowly missed out on a podium spot at its first race outing. At the six hour race in Silverstone, the season-opener of the sports car World Endurance Championship (WEC), Porsche works drivers Marc Lieb (Germany), Richard Lietz (Austria) and Romain Dumas (France) occupied fourth in the GTE-Pro class with the 470 hp race car from Weissach. At the wheel of the second 911 RSR, also fielded by the newly-formed Porsche AG Team Manthey, their works driver colleagues Joerg Bergmeister (Germany), Patrick Pilet (France) and Timo Bernhard (Germany) took the flag in sixth.

On the storied British race track, the Porsche 911 RSR, based on the seventh generation of the iconic 911 sports car, took up the race after a good qualifying result from the second row of the grid and could match the pace of its strongest opponents for some time. At times, Patrick Pilet was running third with the #91 car, before an unscheduled pit stop cost him more than two laps and pushed him down the field. Halfway through the race, Romain Dumas was also on track for a podium place in third with the #92 car. Later, his teammate Richard Lietz even moved into second place – but at the end of the day it was not enough for a top three placing.

Wolfgang Hatz, Member of the Executive Board – Research and Development: “That was the first race for the new car and the new team. The organisation of the squad worked well. Of course, there are areas where we have room for improvement, but it’s like a football team, we first have to get everything running smoothly. Technically, everything worked on the 911 RSR apart from a one small thing which we will have fixed by the next race. As far as the performance is concerned, we still have room for improvement. Naturally we also have to work on the car, it has a little too much oversteer. But all in all I regard it as a positive weekend. It wouldn’t have been good if the car had experienced lots of problems, but that was not the case. We saw that the 911 RSR can turn consistently quick lap times over the race distance. Now if we do our homework, I think we’ll finish further up the field at the next races.”

Hartmut Kristen, Porsche Head of Motorsport: “Both new 911 RSR reached the flag at their race debut, and there were no major technical problems. With a new team, of course there is still some fine-tuning to be done, that’s normal. We are looking forward to the next race and hope that the car will make another step forward there.”

Marc Lieb (#92): “We gained many important insights in the race. The car underlined its potential. Now we just need to work a little more on that.”

Richard Lietz (#92): “We were looking good in the fast corners, but we need to sort out the oversteer exiting the slow corners. But our engineers should be able to correct this by the next race. If so, the podium is within reach.”

Romain Dumas (#92): “An interesting race. We learned a lot. On the straights we are a little slower than our opponents which makes overtaking very difficult. Still, there are many positives things we can take from this race.”

Joerg Bergmeister (#91): “That wasn’t our dream result. But we’ve learned a lot this weekend. The conditions were not the easiest, because we had no time to practice on the dry track for setting up the car.”

Patrick Pilet (#91): “It’s bad luck that we lost more than two laps, but the mechanics did a good job. In any case, we’ve found a good basis to work on and we are optimistic for the rest of the season.”

Timo Bernhard (#91): “Heading towards Le Mans that was a very valuable race for us. Our performance wasn’t too bad. Without the front axle problem a podium place would have been within reach.”

In the GTE-Am class, Christian Ried (Germany) and his Italian teammates Gianluca Roda and Paolo Ruberti scored fifth place in last year’s Porsche 911 GT3 RSR fielded by the customer team Felbermayr-Proton.

Photo:  SILVERSTONE CIRCUIT (TOWCESTER, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, UK), 6 HOURS OF SILVERSTONE, SUNDAY 14TH APRIL 2013. The No.91 Porsche 911 RSR.

Larbre Competition

A determined performance from all three drivers helped Larbre Competition claim a hard-fought second place class finish at the 6 Hours of Silverstone, round one of the FIA World Endurance Championship, in Britain last Sunday.

The French squad’s #50 Corvette C6.R, driven by Patrick Bornhauser, Julien Canal and Fernando Rees, produced a collectively strong performance to overcome a number of obstacles and snatch a GTE Am runner-up finish with less than five minutes remaining.

Photo:  CIRCUIT PAUL RICARD (LE CASTELLET, FRANCE), OFFICIAL FIA WEC PRE-SEASON TEST, FRIDAY, 29TH MARCH 2013.  The No.50 Larbre Competition Corvette C6R-ZR1.

8Star Motorsports

8Star Motorsports celebrated its first-ever podium finish in its FIA World Endurance Championship debut Sunday in England, as drivers Enzo Potolicchio, Philipp Peter and Rui Aguas overcame a series of setbacks to record a third place finish in a hard-fought season-opening 6 Hours of Silverstone. 

For further team information, click HERE

Photo:  SILVERSTONE CIRCUIT (TOWCESTER, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, UK), 6 HOURS OF SILVERSTONE, SUNDAY 14TH APRIL 2013.  The colourful Ferrari 458 Italia of 8Star Motorsports and Krohn Racing.

Krohn Racing

The No. 57 Krohn Racing Ferrari F458 started the 6 Hours of Silverstone, Round One of the 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship, from the seventh position in class. Although the popular green-and-blue liveried car ran as high as third, they had to settle for a sixth place finish in the GTE-Am class.

Krohn Racing’s website can be found HERE

Fiona Miller