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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