Le Mans – Aston Martin responds

Aston Martin is determined to reconnect with its glorious past at Le Mans in GT. With its V8 Vantage GTE, the Gaydon firm is aiming for the podium in the two Grand Touring categories. And for the moment, this objective is far from being usurped.

In GTE Pro, the No. 97 of Stefan Mücke, Darren Turner and Adrian Fernandez set the second best time in qualifying (3'55"870) behind the Ferrari n°59 of Luxury Racing. A time signed by Darren Turner. “Our position on the grid is really good, underlines the Briton. I am delighted for the whole team, and am surprised by the pace of the GTE. I was expecting a pole around 3'38, but three cars, including us, are in 3'55. The pace is much higher than I expected. The car is really good and I know we could have gotten a little better without the traffic. But I think that's the case for everyone. We spent most of the final session working on the car's balance for the race, and we made great progress. We decided to reduce the aerodynamic downforce to have more top speed on the Mulsanne straight, and it seems that it worked. But we have to be careful, because this will definitely affect the car in corners. The pace of the GTE Pro promises to be frantic. So it’s encouraging to know that we have a car that allows us to fight in the peloton”.

Everything seems open in Pro, just like in Am. Alan Simonsen qualified the No. 99 which he shares with Kristian Poulsen and Christoffer Nygaard in third position. " I am delighted, admits the Dane. But for a 24-hour race, your starting position doesn't matter. We have good speed, although we could have gone even faster. We have all the cards in hand to play for the podium, but I am confident about our chances of doing even better”.

“Second and third, those are great results for qualifying, continues Team Principal John Gaw. We knew coming here that the Vantage GTE had real potential, and these results prove it. It would have been nice to be on pole, but for a double clock this second and third position are great places to start. Analyzing the best sectors, I don't think we will have traffic-free laps with either car. We spent a lot of time working on long relays, and since we didn't encounter any technical problems throughout the week, we can really be optimistic for the race.".

After an extremely difficult year in LM P1, Aston Martin is coming back to life in GTE. The British brand will certainly not lack supporters tomorrow at 15 p.m., on the occasion of the start of the 80th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.