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Hexis Aston dominates race one

Aston Martin dominated the qualifying race at the Silverstone round of the FIA GT1 World Championship on Saturday evening

The French Hexis team claimed a one-two in the one-hour race with its pair of Aston Martin DBR9s. Thomas Accary and Frederic Makowiecki led home team-mates Clivio Piccione and Jonathan Hirschi to claimed victory by three and a half seconds, which gives them pole position for tomorrow's main event and eight championship points.

"This was a good result after our problems at Abu Dhabi [the series opener last month]," said Makowiecki. "The Aston was incredible today, really consistent."

The early laps of the race were dominated by the pole-winning Young Driver AMR Aston in the hands of Tomas Enge. The Czech built a lead that grew to as much as four and a half seconds ahead of Accary until the mandatory pitstops in the middle of the race.

Darren Turner would have taken over the lead in the German-run Young Driver car had he not be called in for a drivethrough, which was award because Enge had cut the white line on the pitlane entry ahead of his stop. Turner then repeated the infringement when he pitted, resulting in a further stop-go penalty.

Turner resumed down in seventh place, but was able to fight his way past the Sumo Power Nissan of Warren Hughes, Mike Hezemans in the best of the Phoenix/Carsport Chevrolet Corvettes and then Jos Menten's Reiter Lamborghini. That left him fourth at the finish behind the Vitaphone Maserati driven by Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini.

Hughes and team mate Jamie Campbell-Walter ended up fifth, followed by Menten and impressive FIA GT newcomer Frank Kechele in the Reiter Lambo.

Pos  Drivers                 Team                           Time/Gap
 1.  Makowiecki/Accary       Hexis Aston Martin         1h02m00.692s
 2.  Hirschi/Piccione        Hexis Aston Martin             + 3.577s
 3.  Bertolini/Bartels       Vitaphone Maserati             + 4.935s
 4.  Turner/Enge             Young Driver Aston            + 27.880s
 5.  Hughes/Campbell-Walter  Sumo Power Nissan             + 29.745s
 6.  Menten/Kechele          Reiter Lamborghini            + 33.488s
 7.  Hezemans/Kumpen         Phoenix/Carsport Corvette     + 40.752s
 8.  Krumm/Dumbreck          Sumo Power Nissan             + 40.852s
 9.  Bernoldi/Ramos          Vitaphone Maserati            + 47.687s
10.  Kox/Haase               Reiter Lamborghini            + 49.958s
11.  Zuber/Hennerici         Phoenix/Carsport Corvette     + 50.581s
12.  Maassen/Armindo         MadCroc Corvette            + 1m07.000s
13.  Gavin/Kuismanen         MadCroc Corvette            + 1m10.589s
14.  Ara/Nilsson             Swiss Nissan                + 1m19.057s
15.  Wendlinger/Moser        Swiss Nissan                + 1m27.997s
16.  Bobbi/Longin            Triple H Maserati           + 1m29.602s
17.  Bouchut/Basseng         Munnich Lamborghini         + 1m31.859s
18.  Palttala/Kuppens        Marc VDS Ford                   + 1 lap
19.  Leinders/Martin         Marc VDS Ford                   + 1 lap
20.  Schwager/Pastorelli     Munnich Lamborghini             + 1 lap
21.  Grosjean/Mutsch         Matech Ford                    + 2 laps

Retirements:

     Margaritis/Heger        Triple H Maserati           21 laps
     Mucke/Nygaard           Young Driver Aston          14 laps

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