ASTON MARTIN TAKES GTE AM PODIUM IN SHANGHAI

Aston Martin Racing has finished the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) Six Hours of Shanghai GTE AM class in second place with its #98 Vantage GTE.

The penultimate round of the WEC saw the Aston Martin Racing GTE AM teams go head-to-head. A closely fought qualifying session saw the pair start from the front row of the class grid and, throughout the first five hours of the race, they switched places at the lead of the pack.

However, a drying track caused difficult conditions and the #96 Vantage GTE had a small ‘off’, taking it out of the challenge for the race win. Come the chequered flag, it was the #98 that crossed the line to take its fifth podium of the year.

The GTE PRO cars, however, were, as expected, unable to battle for podium positions following recent regulation changes that have restricted performance in the class. The #99 Vantage GTE had to settle for fifth and the #97 finished in sixth.

“All of our drivers and engineers got the most out of the Vantage GTE this weekend,” commented John Gaw. “In the GTE AM class we have two very strong driver line-ups and they gave us a fantastic inter-team battle at the front of the race.

“There was no real surprise in the GTE PRO class. As expected, we were unable to challenge for podium positions but I was impressed with just how much the drivers got out of the car, especially in qualifying. That’s all you can ask of your team – that they get the best result possible from everything presented to them.

“Hopefully, now we have completed two races under the current regulations, as is normal before a review, things will be corrected for the final race in Bahrain, but that is a decision for the championship organisers.”

The Six Hours of Bahrain takes place on Saturday 21 November 2015.