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STRONG SEASON FINALE FOR GULF AND AMR
The car started in sixth place on the grid and quickly established itself as the prime challenger to the Audi and Peugeot Diesel cars - a role it was to maintain to the finish of the 1000KMS.
In front of a big crowd of sportscar fans, 009, crewed by outgoing Le Mans Series Drivers’ champion, Stefan Mücke and Sam Hancock ran a faultless race, looking to maintain its place at the head of the petrol-engined field and ideally placed to take advantage of any problems that might arise for the diesel cars. Thus it moved up after the pole-setting Audi ran into trouble in the first hour.
Its sister 007 numbered car, driven by Adrian Fernandez, Harold Primat and Andy Meyrick had made rapid progress from its position at the rear of the grid, after its qualifying problems, to run easily inside the top ten. The blue and orange car looked headed for a finish in the top six, when an off course excursion ended its day, with about an hour of the race remaining.
Gulf Oil Vice President International, Alain Dujean was at Silverstone to witness what should be the final competitive appearance of the striking LMP1 coupe in its factory Gulf colours, before the new open cockpit Aston Martin appears in 2011.
“The team did another exceptional job today – as they have done all season,” commented Alain Dujean. “All of us at Gulf would like to thank everyone at Aston Martin Racing for their fantastic efforts again this year. There has been further success on track and the take-up of Gulf’s Motorsport programme by our affiliates has been stronger than ever – in what has been essentially an “interim” season - and much of that is due to the hard work put in by Aston Martin Racing.”
The Gulf Team First car, driven by Fabien Giroix and Roald Goethe made a solid Le Mans Series debut. The beautiful Lamborghini LP560 Gallardo spun once, but otherwise ran an incident-free race, finishing just outside the top ten in the ultra -competitive LMGT2 class. It was the first time that the car has appeared in GT2 configuration and there is much further development planned before a full run of Le Mans Series races in 2011. Part of this includes another outing for the team at the Asian Le Mans series race at Zuhai, China, before the end of this season.
“Next season has all the makings of a truly exciting one for Gulf in Motorsport. We are eagerly anticipating our fourth year in partnership with Aston Martin Racing and look forward to what we think will be a very strong year for the team and all of its partners. The programme is extremely ambitious with an increased number of races planned by Aston Martin Racing for next year. Therefore, we look forward to joining the team, our affiliates - and our other Gulf partners in motor sport – trackside in 2011.”
The 1000KMS of Zuhai will take place on 7th November, with the Le Mans Series recommencing in Spring of 2011.
Posted on 13/09/2010 by Colm Hamrogue