GT1 World
Young Driver AMR dominate at the Nürburgring
© Ronald Fleurbaaij
Young Driver AMR gave a magnificent performance at the sixth round of the GT1 World Championship at the Nürburgring. On home ground the German team experienced a weekend that can only be described as dominant. After taking Pole Position and the victory in the Qualifying Race, Darren Turner (GB) and Tomas Enge (CZ) also took the victory in the Championship Race in the Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin DBR9, giving the team its first victory in the GT1-World Championship. Stefan Mücke (D) and Christoffer Nygaard (DK) completed the dream weekend with a fifth place finish in the second Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin DBR9.
Darren Turner had a good start into the Championship Race and used his Pole Position to take the lead. Turner even made a small gap and handed over the Aston Martin to Tomas Enge in the lead halfway through the race. Enge continued the lead and built an even bigger gap, the former Czech Formula 1-driver secured an almost unchallenged first victory on home turf for Young Driver after 60 minutes of racing.
The second Young Driver-Aston Martin of Mücke and Nygaard also had a great race. Starting driver Nygaard was running ninth after the start and was able to climb as high as sixth, before handing the car over to Mücke. The reigning Le Mans Series-Champion then challenged the fifth placed Maserati and overtook him in the final lap.
After six rounds of the GT1-World Championship, Turner/Enge are third in the championship standings, Young Driver AMR is also third in the team championship.
Driver quotes after the race:
Tomas Enge (#7 Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin DBR9):
“With five or six laps to go, there was a drizzle, but only for two laps. I slowed a little bit as did the other cars and could maintain my gap. We had the fasted car of the weekend, but it was not as fast as the result with a 10 second gap might show. We just had a clean race, one of the fasted pit stops and made no mistakes. Now we will fight for the World Championship!”
Darren Turner (#7 Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin DBR9):
“At the start I had to make sure to bring the car trough Turn 1 in one piece and not get rear-ended like in yesterdays race, that was my main objective. I was happy with my gap and pushed a little bit more, just to be sure. Tomas then did a sterling job in the second half of the race.”
Stefan Mücke (#7 Young Driver-Aston Martin DBR9):
“Christoffer did a good job in the first part of the race. I was running in sixth position at the end of the race and I had to drive fairly aggressive to chase the Maserati in front of me. But as a result I got little to much heat in my rear tires and I pulled off a bit. After the tires cooled down, I attacked again on the last lap and this time it worked. Fifth place was the maximum we could archive today, considering we started from ninth position.”
Christoffer Nygaard (#7 Young Driver-Aston Martin DBR9):
“My start was not so good, as I couldn’t see the green light. I lost one position, but managed to gain one quickly. After that I was chasing a Lamborghini at the end of my stint for sixth place, but it was really hard to pass him. But we finally passed him in the pits.”
Hardy Fischer, team principal Young Driver AMR:
“That was really the best weekend this season for us. The team did a perfect job, I’m really proud of all my boys. They perform perfect pitstops every time, our #8 car was super, the #7 just perfect. I hope that the FIA will not change the Balance of Performance for the next races. It’s easy to say if you are the boss of the winning team, I but think everybody saw today that all cars are quite well balanced.”
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Watched the race live on line on GT1TV. Another good GT1 race on track with battles all the way thro’ the field, but results are clearly part driven by the weight penalty system.
Reiter won Spa because it was carrying little weight, AMR Young Driver won Nurburgring for similar reason, and as Thomas Muche (Matech Ford said in interview after co driver Richard Westbrook took a drive thro’ for aggressive overtaking: “we lose the weight for the next race”.
Good series, good cars and drivers, hope they can find a better equivalency formula before results become too predictable.
“hope they can find a better equivalency formula before results become too predictable.”
The Astons were running 10KG below their minimum weight at 1190KG, the Massers were at 1255KG minimum weight, the racing was a joke. Look at Silverstone, the Astons were at 1190KG there too, same result except they got the hook for bottoming out. Aston couldn’t punch their way out of a paper bag if it was wet. Dominated…hardly; more like another gift from Ratels wheel of weight and restrictors.
It was fun watching the battles all through the field for the different places. While I dont think that the weight balancing is perfect, the Astons havent had weight added in some time and they still were mid-pack runners. My complaint about this weekend was the apparent disregard for “clean” racing. As the commentators noted, from the start of the qual race to the end of the championship race, drivers were very careless with how they drove regardless of the possible consequences. That Reiter driver that squeezed the Nissan at the start of the qual race was totally blatant. The start of the championship race was eerily similar. And during the race, Mutsch getting spun, and Westbrook pushing the #2 Masserati, incidents with the All-Inkl Lambos . . . There were waaay to many damaged cars after this weekend.
Agree, far too many of the antics we see too often from touring car drivers. The understatements used by commentators – ‘rubbing’ – ‘nudging’ – ‘a tap’ – actually mean full lateral or rear contact between large, powerful, expensive cars.
Several were mobile wrecks at the Ring, and it seemed that the aggressors – Westbrook excepted as he got a drive through – usually came out on top. LMS/ACO/ALMS have acted to address a range of driving standards issues this season, the FIA/SRO need to act also.
I love this online feature FIA is doing, i wasn’t able to watch the race till just last night because of weekend plans i had.
Race was pretty good, but i feel bad for a couple drivers who got hit with penaltys when i dont think they should of got them at times, especially because of rain and lock-ups. But oh well rules are rules.
4 more races to go! w00t.