WEC
Aston Martin Racing hour 4 report
Aston Martin Racing press release
Edited: Mar 18, 2012, 1:02 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
STRONG START TO 12 HOURS OF SEBRING FOR ASTON MARTIN RACING
Sebring, 17 March 2012 – At the four hour mark of the 60th anniversary edition of the 12 Hours of Sebring, Aston Martin Racing holds third position among the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) runners in the GTE Pro category and fifth when combined with the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) competitors following the team’s strong start to the celebrated endurance race.
#97 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage V8: Stefan Mücke, Adrian Fernandez, Darren Turner
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
Darren Turner (GBR) occupied the driver’s seat for the opening stint of the race. At the 30 minute mark, a full course caution gave the team the opportunity to pit the Gulf-liveried Vantage GTE for tyres and fuel without losing too much time to its GTE rivals. Turner increased his speed after the perfectly executed pit stop to run at a pace that was consistently within a second of yesterday’s qualifying time.
Following an hour and 20 minutes of competitive action, Turner was able to improve on the #97 Aston Martin’s grid slot for the start of the race to lead all of its GTE rivals in both the WEC and ALMS categories. A pit stop for fuel and tyres after one hour and 30 minutes saw Turner make way for fellow factory driver Stefan Mücke (D), who rejoined the action in third position in the WEC GTE Pro class.
The German driver pitted for fuel from second in the GTE class at the two and a half hour mark. However, a full course caution as Mücke left the pit lane halted his charge and gave the team’s rivals the opportunity to pit under the yellow flag. With the race back up to full speed, Mücke handed over to team-mate Adrian Fernandez (MX) after three hours and 15 minutes hours during the third yellow flag interruption of the race, which was caused by the erstwhile GTE class leading car colliding with a prototype. After four hours, Fernandez holds 30th overall in the #97 Aston Martin.
John Gaw, Team Principal for Aston Martin Racing, was thrilled with his team’s performance during the opening four hours: “There’s a very long way to go yet, but we have every reason to be pleased given our strong start. The drivers are very happy with the car’s performance and we haven’t had any technical issues. The pace of the GTE category is very quick indeed and we still have our sights on a class podium.”
Mücke added: “It’s all good so far. We haven’t had any problems or dramas and our race pace is good. There have been lots of yellow flags, but we’ve stayed out of trouble ourselves so I’m very happy at the moment.”
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article JRM Racing Sebring qualifying report
Next article Krohn Racing Sebring hour 6 report
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Darren Turner
Farfus replaces Turner at Aston Martin for final WEC races
WEC
WEC
Farfus replaces Turner at Aston Martin for final WEC races
Turner appointed as BTCC's hybrid test driver
BTCC
BTCC
Turner appointed as BTCC's hybrid test driver
Aston Martin refreshes WEC GTE Am line-up
WEC
WEC
Aston Martin refreshes WEC GTE Am line-up
More from
Aston Martin Racing
The six drivers doing double duty in Portimao GTWCE and Barcelona WEC this weekend
WEC
WEC
Barcelona
The six drivers doing double duty in Portimao GTWCE and Barcelona WEC this weekend
“Even faster than Ferrari” – Fernando Alonso grabs Aston Martin’s best result of F1 2026
Formula 1
Formula 1
Bahrain GP in Malaysia
“Even faster than Ferrari” – Fernando Alonso grabs Aston Martin’s best result of F1 2026
Latest news
Yamaha boss on MotoGP changes under Liberty: 'We must be careful not to lose our fans'
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Japanese GP
19 min
Yamaha boss on MotoGP changes under Liberty: 'We must be careful not to lose our fans'
Kyle Busch remembered: Rowdy’s most notable Phoenix moments
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
44 min
Kyle Busch remembered: Rowdy’s most notable Phoenix moments
How Geri Halliwell helped Christian Horner deal with fan hate
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 2 h
How Geri Halliwell helped Christian Horner deal with fan hate
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe