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Aston Martin Nurburgring 24H Qualifying Report

24 Hours of Nurburgring

Nürburgring 24 Hour: Qualifying Complete for Aston Martin

• Pair of new V12 Zagato concept cars to start 5th and 7th in SP8 class
• Factory-backed V8 Vantage to start 4th in SP10 GT4 class
• Three customer team Aston Martin entries also safely qualified across SP8 & SP10

Aston Martin’s brace of new V12 Zagato endurance race car concepts and a factory-backed V8 Vantage have this evening successfully completed qualifying for the ultimate 24 hour race, to be held at the Nürburgring tomorrow.

We are happy that we’ve had a clean run and stayed out of trouble.

David King

Outbreaks of rain both shortly before and midway through today’s qualifying proved prohibitive to achieving the quickest times as many teams opted for a cautious approach with the race now a matter of hours away.

On closing of the two-hour session - which followed an initial qualifying run yesterday evening – V12 Zagato number 5, running in green livery will start from 5th place in the SP8 class, equating to 46th overall in a field of over 200 cars.

Sister car, V12 Zagato number 3 sporting red livery will start 7th in class, 65th overall. Aston Martin’s third entry, a V8 Vantage GT4, qualified in 4th place in the SP10 class, 68th overall.

Aston Martin’s Head of Motorsport, David King said: “As expected the mixed weather meant that it wasn’t worth trying to improve on our times we set last night.

“We have therefore adopted a conservative qualifying strategy, concentrating on making sure that all drivers had some laps and that our cars are in good order. We are happy that we’ve had a clean run and stayed out of trouble. Now we look forward to tomorrow.”

Three further customer teams are also in action at the Nürburgring this weekend joining the factory-backed cars across the SP8 and SP10 GT4 classes. Mathol Racing (#62) and Team Pflanz (#75) will start from 3rd and 6th place respectively in SP10 driving V8 Vantages while AVIA Racing Team Bratke (#85) take 9th in their Vantage GT4 in SP8.

The 39th ADAC Nürburgring 24 Hour race starts at 4pm CET tomorrow, Saturday 25 June – live updates are available by following @astonmartin on Twitter and live commentary will be broadcast via Radio Le Mans (www.radiolemans.com).

In parallel with the race in Germany Aston Martin’s Americas team has joined forces with Road & Track magazine to run a standard road specification Rapide at Spring Mountain Motor Sports Ranch in the USA. The 24 hour endurance test will start at the same time as the green lights show at the Nürburgring and echoes Aston Martin’s Nordschleife attempt last year where a near standard four-door Rapide with a production six-speed automatic transmission successfully completed the 24 hour race, finishing 3rd in class.

Aston Martin Driver Line-Up:

V12 Zagato #3 (red livery) - Aston Martin CEO, Dr. Ulrich Bez and Nürburgring Test Centre Director, Wolfgang Schuhbauer plus automotive journalists Horst von Saurma and Matthew Marsh

V12 Zagato #5 (green livery) – Aston Martin Chief Engineer Chris Porritt, experienced sports car driver Oliver Mathai, automotive journalist Richard Meaden and experienced amateur racer Peter Cate

V8 Vantage #6 (orange livery) - Aston Martin Racing works driver, Darren Turner, journalist and experienced 24 hour driver, Shinichi Katsura, Australian racer Rob Thomson and seasoned Nürburgring pilot Jurgen Stumpf

-by: aston martin

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