It wasn’t quite lights-to-flag, but the victory of the #97 AMR Aston Martin Vantage of Darren Turner, Fred Makowiecki and Stefan Mücke was pretty much flawless and the blue and yellow car left a large and very high quality field trailing in its wake at a sunny Silverstone. But this was a race packed with drama and great racing throughout the field, with Nissan GT Academy Team RJN and ARC Bratislava also going home with big smiles on their faces.
An hour-long red flag during the Lamborghini Trofeo Race caused concerns that the schedule might be pushed back, but the meeting organisers managed to get things sorted and the grid started to form on time ahead of the planned 14:50 start-time.
DSC caught up with PGF-Kinfaun driver – and AMR MD – John Gaw to find out what had been done to the pole-sitting #97 Vantage since its impressive outing in the Nürburgring 24 Hours, where it finished tenth and led overall for a lengthy period; “Nothing. We took it to Snetterton for a test on the Pirellis we’re using this weekend – and it rained, so yesterday was the first time we got to use the slicks. But it’s going very well. A shame we didn’t get pole in all three classes, but the Barwell car opted to save a couple of sets of tyres for the race rather than go for a time, and that was also the reason why Darren Turner only did three laps in his qualifying stint.
Matt Bell wasn’t so happy with the qualifying position of his #230 JRM Nissan GT-R; “We just kept hitting traffic and were losing half a second per sector,” he said. “I was even overtaking on my fastest lap; it’s busy on the track, it’s busy in the pits, it’s busy everywhere! The car was great and I’m sure we could have put it on the front row with a bit more luck; frustrating.”
Nissan GT Academy graduate Mark Schulzhitskiy was looking forward to the race to come; “I know Silverstone well because of the driver development we did here, but this is my first time here in a GT3 and it’s a lot more powerful than the GT4 370Z. We started well here but had some trouble this morning with a sensor which meant we were down on power slightly, but we’re looking forward to the race and if we don’t make any mistakes we could get a good result.”
At 14:45 the grid was cleared and the field pulled off, including the #15 Boutsen Ginion McLaren that was crashed in the early stages of qualifying.
The start was a clean one, but Lucas Ordonez got the drop on Darren Turner and the #35 Nissan GT Academy RJN GT-R led out of Copse. Third, fourth and fifth stayed unchanged from the grid, but Stéphane Ortelli was up to sixth in the #1 WRT Audi as Eric Dermont started to drop back in the #34 Pro GT by Almeras Porsche.
As Ordonez increased his lead over Turner to 0.914s after two laps, the second RJN Nissan was heading for the pits with Wolfgang Reip’s #32 having lost bodywork. Harald Primat was also dropping down the order in the #6 Phoenix Audi following a contact-induced spin (with the #71 SMP Ferrari), but was able to continue in 38th. The top two soon began to break away as Alexander Skryabin in the #70 SMP Ferrari focussed on defending third from Christopher Mies in the #13 WRT Audi. Ortelli took fifth from Peter Dumbreck in the #23 JRM Nissan in forceful fashion, but the Scottish racer was back ahead a couple of laps later.
As expected, track limits soon became an issue with a number of cars being warned and then black-and-white-flagged for exceeding them in the opening 20 minutes. How long would it be before penalties were issued? The #77 MRS GT Racing McLaren of Rodin Younessi, meanwhile, received the black and white flags after three spins in the same period of time.
The #83 SMG Porsche of Eric Clément looked to be the race’s first casualty at 20 minutes as it pulled off opposite the Wing.
With 25 minutes gone, the gap between the two leaders remained at just below a second, but Skryabin’s defence of third had dropped him 12 seconds back from the PRO Aston; three seconds covering third to eighth places. GTR was led by the #66 ARC Bratislava Porsche of Omani racer Ahmad Al Harthy in 25th place.
On Lap 14 the lead battle caught traffic and the two cars went either side of a McLaren at Farm curve. Ordonez went right while Turner went to the left and had more momentum out of the bend, giving him the lead at the start of the Wellington Straight. And there was more drama just moments later as the #3 Marc VDS BMW Z4 of Bas Leinders had a coming together with the #41 Saintéloc Audi of Pierre Hirschi while lapping it. The BMW ended up in the gravel, while the Audi was able to continue. Leinders was dragged out and limped back to the pits, but the car’s race was effectively over.
While all this was happening, Skryabin’s resolve had weakened and Mies, Dumbreck and Ortelli were soon by.
The #11 ART McLaren became the first car to incur a drive-through for exceeding track limits (with the #26 Vita4One BMW invited to do the same soon afterwards) , and then the #12 PRO-AM sister car of Grégoire Demoustier lost a wheel out on track. The car was able to continue and made it back to the pits.
42 seconds further back from the second placed Nissan was the fight for second in PRO-AM, between the #78 GRT LP560-4 of Gerhard Tweraser and the #18 Black Falcon SLS of Steve Jans; the Mercedes just a couple of tenths ahead of the Lamborghini.
Race Director Bernard Cottrell was clearly beginning to lose his temper as the first hour ended, with the #19 SLS of Oliver Morley given a drive-through for track limits, and then no fewer than five cars – 88, 70, 4, 22 and 43 – instructed to do the same for overtaking under yellows.
Christopher Mies became the first of the frontrunners to stop with 57 minutes having elapsed; Edward Sandström taking over the #13 WRT Audi. Suddenly the stops were in full flow, with Ordonez stopping a couple of laps later. Turner was the last of the top 40 runners to stop and handed the Vantage over to Fred Makowiecki still in the lead.
The order after the stops were completed was 97, 13, 1, 44, 35, 23, 2, 57, 7 and 16, with Makowiecki holding an 11-second lead. Peter Pyzera found himself in fifth in the #35 Nissan and 34 seconds off the lead, but was the quickest man on track. However, Bob Neville was being summoned to race control which suggested a penalty was imminent; and, indeed, the car was issued a drive-through for overtaking under yellows, along with the #57 Ferrari. Both cars took their stops soon afterwards, but the Nissan had enough of an advantage over the #78 Lambo of Hari Proczyk to hold onto the PRO-AM lead.
Fred Mako wasted no time in building his lead, with a 2:02.901 a full two seconds quicker than anyone else on Lap 35. Further back, Joe Osborne was making progress in the #180 Barwell Aston on his saved tyres and was up to 18th overall and third in PRO-AM with an hour and 37 minutes to go. More significantly, he was lapping two to three seconds quicker than was Proczyk about 20 seconds further up the road
At the halfway point the order was Aston, Audi, Audi, Ferrari, Nissan, Audi, McLaren, BMW, Audi and Nissan. Top Mercedes was the #62 Fortec SLS – Benji Hetherington taking the car over after a strong stint from Stephen Jelley – while top Porsche was the #75 ProSpeed GT3 R of Maxime Soulet in 19th.
With the lead gap having settled at around the 20s mark, Laurens Vanthoor was making ground on the second-placed Frank Stippler – the gap between #1 and #13 down to 0.305s after 45 laps. The fight continued through traffic, with the almost identical ‘Battlefield’-liveried cars nose to tail. Vanthoor took full advantage of the tow from his teammate down the Hangar Straight and took the place at Stowe on Lap 47. The contest had given Makowiecki’s lead an extra three seconds.
The fight for the outer fringes of the top six was equally eventful. First, Stef Dusseldorp and Nicky Catsburg passed Niki Mayr-Melnhof for sixth and seventh, and then the #4 BMW passed the #7 Hexis McLaren for sixth. Further back, the battle for second in PRO-AM was heating up, with the #180 Barwell Aston closing to with ten seconds of the #78 Lambo, but Joe Osborne was adjudged to have exceeded the track limits and he would have to take a slow drive along the pitlane.
Vanthoor was making progress in his quest to reduce Makowiecki’s lead, but it refused to come down below 17 seconds as the second hour came to its close. Three laps further back, John Gaw had just taken over the #97 PGF-Kinfaun Aston from Phil Dryburgh for the first time and it would be interesting to see how much progress he could make from fourth in the GTR class from fourth (34th overall).
The end of Hour 2 coincided with the second round of (planned) stops, with Lucas Luhr the first of the top five cars to stop; handing the #23 JRM Nissan over to Steven Kane. Vanthoor pitted just past the hour and the not-usually-very-slow René Rast hopped into the #1 Audi.
The #32 RJN Nissan’s troubled race came to a conclusion with 57 minutes to go when Mark Schulzhitskiy pulled the Nissan off the circuit with an apparent engine fire.
The penalties continued to be issued as the #17 Insight Racing Ferrari was slapped with a 20 second stop/go for failing to serve a drive-through that had been issued previously, but while the Marc VDS team manager was summoned to race control at the same time, no sanction was forthcoming.
The PRO and PRO-Am leaders finally made their final stops with 47 minutes to go; Makowiecki handing over to Stefan Mücke and Proczyk handing over to Gottfried Grasser. Alex Buncombe was now in the #35 RJN Nissan, however, and would soon be retaking the class lead; especially with a pace that began in the 2:02s.
With 44 minutes remaining, Mücke’s lead was 17s over Rast, with Edward Sandström third in the #13 Audi, a further 23 seconds further back. Daniele Zampieri was fourth in the #44 Kessel Ferrari, Markus Palttala fifth in the #4 VDS BMW, and Steven Kane sixth in the #23 RJN Nissan.
The top 20 at this stage: 97, 1, 13, 44, 4, 23, 7, 2, 16, 69, 35, 57, 78, 180, 6, 62, 25, 75, 90 and 71.
As expected, Buncombe led PRO-AM, with Grasser 34 seconds behind in second. Richard Abra, meanwhile, was just 12.5s further back in third and lapping much more quickly. Ahmad Al Harthy led GTR by about 32 seconds from the now-second John Gaw. With their laptimes very similar, however, a change for the lead looked unlikely; indeed, the Vantage driver would have to keep an eye on his mirrors with Jerome Policand lapping quickly in the #10 SOFREV ASP Ferrari not far behind in third.
With half an hour to go Mücke’s lead was 21.260s over Rast and things were looking settled at the head of the race. However, things were happening in PRO-AM with Abra finally reeling in Grasser and taking second for Barwell on Lap 70.
The #57 Vita4One Ferrari of Giacomo Petrobelli expired in fiery fashion with just over 20 seconds to go – eerily reminiscent of the way its race fell apart at the same stage of the three-hour British GT Silverstone 500 exactly a week earlier – but the driver was out uninjured.
In GT-R, al Harthy had a bit of a scare when he was forced to take to the grass in avoidance of a slow car. He survived and continued and his advantage over Gaw levelled out again at about 20 seconds. Further back, John Gaw seemed to be comfortable in second, but the car’s pace suddenly slowed with about 15 minutes remaining and Policand’s Ferrari caught up and passed within the space of two laps.
In PRO-AM, Henry Hassid had caught up to the Grasser Lamborghini and third place changed hands with ten minutes to go. John Gaw had recovered his pace, meanwhile, and was back on the tail of Policand’s 458 and pushing to recover second in GT-R.
Back at the head of the race, the top three remained unchanged, but a late charge from Palttala closed the gap to Zampieri to just 0.350s in the fight for fourth with three minutes remaining. The BMW had a look a couple of times on the penultimate lap and was alongside as the cars arrived at Farm. The Ferrari held the inside and there was contact between the two, causing the Z4 to have a slide which the Finn did well to prevent from turning into a spin. The fight wasn’t over yet, however.
Stefan Mücke began his final lap with just a few seconds left on the clock and completed the 83rd circuit without issue to take a fine win for Aston by 20.981 seconds over Rast.
Edward Sandström took third for WRT, but the fight for fourth went all the way to the flag with Palttala taking position from Zampieri on the last lap and then losing fourth to Steven Kane who seemingly came from nowhere in the #23 Nissan to pass both the Ferrari and BMW.
Alex Buncombe crossed the line in tenth – the last car on the lead lap – to take a fine PRO-AM win for the Nissan GT Academy Team RJN, with Richard Abra holding on to second for Barwell and Henry Hassid third for TDS Racing.
Ahmad Al Harthy and Miro Konopka could celebrate a fine GTR win for ARC Bratislava, but second place was again not settled until the flag. John Gaw set several personal best sectors in his efforts to retake the place, but Jerome Policand did the same in his efforts to defend his position and the Ferrari crossed the line just 0.975s ahead of the Vantage. The AMR MD could, however, be content with the knowledge that an Aston Martin had finished on the podium in all three classes.
Quotes:
PRO-CUP
Darren Turner: “I was a bit cautious at the beginning. Lucas was super fast and it was hard to keep up with him. When we hit traffic it was sometimes in his favour, sometimes in my favour. He had an incident and then had another, where he went one way and I went the other. After that it was just traffic management and I was lucky. I am pleased with how the car went and the team made no mistakes.”
Fred Makowiecki: It wasn’t easy to manage traffic. The team did a good job with the car and the pitstops. We had a good setup, the car was really consistent. I tried to drive safe and not make contact. It was easy to make a mistake.”
Stefan Mücke: “It couldn’t be better. We came here and went straight to a win. We were constantly building a gap. The team was gathered together for the first time this weekend. They did a brilliant job, without mistakes.”
Stéphane Ortelli: For us it was a good race; delighted with the fight. Traffic was an issue. We could use the potential of our car as good as we could. I couldn’t take a lot of risk as we had to think of championship. It was a very good job to be on the podium.
Laurens Vanthoor: I came back slowly to Frank and caught up. We handled it very fair, as teammates should do. The race was not an easy race, it was difficult. The pace was quite okay, all three of us did the best we could. Good championship points, which is important for us.
René Rast: It was quite easy for me. They did a great job before me; the team did a good pit stop; built up a good pace; but the Aston Martin was just faster. We can be happy; we scored good points for the championship, which was important.
Christopher Mies: “We were missing some power at the start, so I went back to P4. I was faster than Ferrari and couldn’t pass him. They made a mistake and I was in P3, but the Aston was already away. It was a good race for WRT, but I’m not 100% happy – there are two other cars in front of us. We have to push a bit more for the next race. “
Frank Stippler: “I struggled a little bit with pickup. Unfortunately, I took some pickup after the first 20 minutes, it was then difficult and not fun to drive. We tried to save the third place during that area of the race. In the end we have to be fine with that. In lapping the traffic I picked up some disadvantage.”
PRO-AM CUP
Lucas Ordonez: “It was a crazy start, and I tried to be safe. I had the chance to go around the outside and lead the race for some laps. The GTR was great in the first laps, but then I caught traffic and they were struggling to watch the blue flags. Crazy to expect where they were going.”
Peter Pyzera: “Very fantastic. We did a good job I think. I am proud of myself and my team and I hope we can continue like this.”
Alex Buncombe: “We didn’t think we’d be quite as strong here as at Monza. The engineer found good balance in qualifying, so I got my head down today every lap. We’re really looking forward to Spa.”
Mark Poole: “We weren’t quite sure what to expect, as this was our first time in the BES. The Barwell car was quite competitive all weekend. It was hard to compete with the Nissan, but very pleased with the result.”
Joe Osborne: “Our pace was brilliant. The Barwell guys did brilliant job on the car, but my stint was marred by a penalty, which was completely wrong.”
Richard Abra: “The tyres got pickup quite easily. We always knew the gap to the Z4 behind us, and knew what we could do.”
Ludovic Badey: “Happy to be on podium. After the incident in the first laps we were at the back. The car was very good all the race, and I did a good job in the traffic. It was difficult to overtake a lot of cars because they don’t look in the mirror or at the blue flags. Very happy with the result as it is good for the championship.”
Henry Hassid: “Amazing to be on the podium after changing a tyre on the fifth lap. So we started again in 55th position, then were 24th-25th after one hour. It is beautiful for us.”
Gentlemen Trophy
Ahmad Al Harthy: “I am truly delighted to be here and to win here is amazing. My first stint was really important. Starting from the back of the grid is always exciting.”
(On incident 20 minutes before the end) “I don’t know what happened; I just saw the barriers in front of me.”
Miro Konopka: “Fantastic weekend. I’ve waited for this for a long time – the last time I was in a press conference was in FIA GT back in 2004 in China.”
Phil Dryburgh: “I absolutely loved it. The driving standards were excellent from back to front.”
John Gaw: “The race was pretty straightforward, but Phil did a brilliant job. It was a good fight in the end, I really enjoyed it. For Aston Martin it’s fantastic. We got first in PRO, third in PRO-AM and third in GTR; a nice warm-up for Le Mans.”
Next up for the Blancpain Endurance Series takes place a week after the Le Mans 24 hours at Paul Ricard.
MH/MtC
