Young Driver AMR starts into second half of the season
Spanish GT1-round marks halfway point in World Championship
Paderborn, 27.06.2011 [GT1 World Championship]
The GT1-World Championship starts into the second half of the
season with this weekend’s sixth round at Navarra in Spain. At the
track located in the north of Spain between Logrono and Pamplona,
Young Driver AMR will once again fight for the podium with it’s two
Aston Martin DBR9 driven by Alex Müller (GER)/Tomas Enge (CZE)
and Stefan Mücke (GER)/Darren Turner (GBR).
The premiere race of the GT1 World Championship at Navarra last
season has already been a success for Young Driver AMR. Starting
from last row into the Championship Race after an issue in the
Qualifying Race, Darren Turner and Tomas Enge fought up to fourth
place and only briefly missed the podium. “We had a good pace at
Navarra last year”, Young Driver AMR team principal Hardy Fischer
recalls. “This year we have to take the little bit different performance
of the cars into account and also the warmer ambient temperatures.
But I’m still cautiously optimistic. After the last round our mechanics
made a big effort and rebuilt the No. 8 car. I hope we can score good
points with both cars and move further up in the team championship.”
The first part of the season brought much joy for the Young Driver
AMR team. In four of the five races, Young Driver AMR finished on
the podium and also claimed the victory in the Qualifying Race of the
most recent round in England. For the second part of the season,
Young Driver AMR is well positioned in the team- and the driver
championship. Young Driver AMR is third in team points, only three
points behind the second placed team. Stefan Mücke/Darren Turner
and Alex Müller/Tomas Enge are currently fifth and sixth in the drivers
ranking, only 14, respectively 17 points behind the leader.
Driver quotes before the race:
Alex Müller (#7 Young Driver-Aston Martin DBR9): “Navarra is a
nice new track. After we won the Qualifying Race at Silverstone and
finished second in the Championship Race, I travel quite optimistic to
Spain. Of course, after our recent success we have to carry some
success ballast, but we will cope with that. Last year we saw that the
track wasn’t too bad for the Aston Martin, but this year we have also
to consider the temperatures, which will come into play. One year
ago, the Navarra round was in autumn. This year we will be faced
with much warmer temperatures in the heat of the summer. It would
be great, if we will be able to score another podium at Navarra. But a
fourth or fifth place would also be a ideal result, as we can reduce the
success weight for the following rounds and further fill up our point
score.“
Tomá! Enge (#7 Young Driver-Aston Martin DBR9): “We had quite
a good race at Navarra last year. But this season it’s very difficult to
predict, as the date of the race moved from October to July. It’s very
hot down there and it will certainly be the same for the race. So we
are not really sure if we will have the same performance with the car
then last year, considering the very high ambient temperatures. After
our success in the last round, we also have success ballast in the car.
Young Driver AMR GmbH
Max-Planck-Str. 3a
D-33104 Paderborn / Germany
phone: +49 5254 93 06 295
email: info@youngdriver-amr.com
www.youngdriver-amr.com
I hope that we will avoid any troubles during the race and score some
good points.”
Stefan Mücke (#8 Young Driver-Aston Martin DBR9): “I don’t know
Navarra quite well. Last year we had an issue during free practise
and couldn’t start into the race. So I’m lacking a bit experience on that
track. Our team principal Hardy Fischer gave us the opportunity last
year to race a GT3-car at that track, but you can only hardly compare
that to a GT1-machine. So I guess I will need some laps in the free
practise to come up to speed. At Navarra, it will certainly be very
difficult, but last year’s race of our sister-car showed that’s it’s
possible for us to score a good result there. At the last race in
England, we had some very bad luck, but this means also that we
don’t have any success ballast in the car. Navarra is a very technical
track. It’s narrow and twisty with many first and second gear corners.
It’s very important for a good lap time to drive very clean there.”
Darren Turner (#8 Young Driver-Aston Martin DBR9): „We had a
very tough weekend at Silverstone with the No. 8 car and have to
leave that behind. Luckily our sister car had a good weekend there
and scored a podium finished, which helped Young Driver AMR in the
team championship. We are now looking forward to Navarra. Last
year, we didn’t had a too bad race there. During the Championship
Race, we went from last to fourth, which was a pretty good result.
Navarra is the start into the second half of the season and our main
objective is not to loose too much ground on the championship
leaders. I hope for a clean race, then we will have a fair chance to
collect a good amount of points. Last year we saw at Navarra that the
track layout favours a little bit the rear-engined cars. But this season
our Aston Martin DBR9 proved to be an allround car, which is fast on
any kind of tracks. So we should be reasonable competitive in Spain.“
###
Follow GT1 World:
Both races and the qualifying are streamed live in the internet with
English commentary at www.gt1world.com/gt1tv
Timetable:
Friday 1st July
13:00 - 14:20 FIA GT1 World Championship Free Practice
16:20 - 17:40 FIA GT1 World Championship Pre-Qualifying
Saturday 2nd July
11:15 - 12:15 FIA GT1 World Championship Qualifying
16:45 - 17:45 FIA GT1 World Championship Qualifying Race
Sunday 3rd. July
09:00 - 09:30 FIA GT1 World Championship Warm Up
13:45 - 14:45 FIA GT1 World Championship Championship Race
Young Driver is on Twitter
Follow all the action @YoungDriverAMR
Young Driver AMR GmbH
Max-Planck-Str. 3a
D-33104 Paderborn / Germany
phone: +49 5254 93 06 295
email: info@youngdriver-amr.com
www.youngdriver-amr.com
Schedule GT1-World 2011
24. – 25. March Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi (VAE)
08. – 10. April Zolder (B)
06. – 08. May Algarve, Portimão (P)
13. – 15. May Sachsenring (D)
03. – 05. June Silverstone Supercar 2011 (GB)
01. – 03. July Navarra (E)
15. – 17. July HTTT Paul Ricard, Le Castellet (F)
02. – 04. September Ordos (CN)
21. – 23. October Curitiba (BR)
05. – 06. November San Luis (ARG)
About Young Driver AMR
Young Driver AMR was founded by Hardy Fischer and his friend and
long-time associate Jan Struve in late 2009 and is representing Aston
Martin as one of only two teams in the FIA GT1 World Championship
with two Aston Martin DBR9. The abbreviation AMR in the team
name stands for Aston Martin Racing, Young Driver AMR is the only
official German partner team of Aston Martin Racing. Young Driver
AMR is a sister-team of Fischer Racing and based in Paderborn. In
it’s first racing season 2010, Young Driver AMR took three victories in
the FIA GT1 World Championship and finished on the class podium in
it’s first ever outing in the legendary 24 hours of Le Mans in France.
Young Driver Press.
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