Nürburgring: Aston Martin Racing has qualified in 8th place in the 2016 Nürburgring 24 Hours, while close-to-production Aston Martin Vantage GT8 takes pole position in the SP8 class.
With Nicki Thiim (DN) at the hands of the #007 V12 Vantage GT3, the Dane achieved a lap time of 8m20.332 to secure eighth position in the IQ Option livered challenger. Despite an incident ridden session which saw portions of the track yellow flagged, Thiim retained his composure to claim the position.
Thiim said following the session, “The conditions were tricky for the shootout and straight away you could see cars going off on the warm up lap. I took it easy on the first flying lap as the second lap was always going to be drier and faster. The lap felt good: the tyres felt good and the car felt strong. I’m really looking forward to the race tomorrow”.
He added, “It looks like we will have some interesting weather conditions so getting through the night is important. The level of competition is very high here this year. Everyone has brought their best, so the bar has been raised again. It’s good to be part of this event”.
The sister Aston Martin Racing V12 Vantage GT3 driven by Richie Stanaway (NZ) took 18th place for the race tomorrow with a lap time of 8m25.204.
Dan Sayers, Aston Martin Racing Technical Director, said, “Nicki put together two excellent laps, despite the difficult conditions. We’ll go into the race tomorrow feeling very optimistic. The important thing to do here is stay out of trouble until Sunday morning and then we can attack from there”.
The Aston Martin team also celebrated a pole position today in the SP8 class, as its close-to-production Vantage GT8 achieved a lap time of 9m08.961 at the hands of Darren Turner during the second qualifying session. Permitted by Nürburgring 24 Hour regulations, Turner switched duties from his regular GT3 entry to qualify the #42 Vantage GT8 over 10 seconds clear of its nearest rival.
Turner said, “I’m really pleased with the performance of the Vantage GT8. It’s fun to drive two different cars here and to be on the SP8 pole is a great start to the weekend. I’ll start the race in that car and I’m expecting it to be as eventful as ever. The aim is to pass the car over to one of my team mates in one piece after that opening stint before I switch into the GT3”.
David King, Vice President and Chief Special Operations Officer added, “We had a really good two sessions with the Vantage GT8. This morning we were subjected to a damp track, but knowing it would dry out we decided to wait for the right moment. We had the benefit of having Darren available in the team and he was able to place the car in pole position by some margin. He’ll start in the car tomorrow and we’re feeling positive ahead of the race.”
