Aston Martin Locks Out The Front Row In Fuji

Aston Martin Racing’s FIA World Endurance Championship Six Hours of Fuji challenge got off to a flying start on Saturday, Oct. 11, as its four identical V8 Vantage GTEs locked out the front row in the GTE Pro class and took pole and third in the GTE Am class in this afternoon’s qualifying session.

It was a maiden pole in the GTE Pro class for the #99 Craft-Bamboo Racing team, which only joined the WEC at the start of this year. The car was piloted by Fernando Rees, who was also fastest in free practice three, and Alex MacDowall, who was delighted at the result.

“It’s quite a shock,” explained the 23-year old. “It’s my first time here so I had a lot to learn in the practice sessions but it just seemed to come together for qualifying. It’s our first pole and Fernando did an amazing job. We’re looking forward to the race tomorrow.”

In the #97 sister-car, Darren Turner (GB) and Stefan Mücke (DE) were close behind and will start the race from second place on the grid of 13 GTE cars.

In the GTE Am class, the #98 NorthWest Vantage GTE of Pedro Lamy (PT) and Christoffer Nygaard (DN) clinched pole position after swapping places with the #95 Young Driver AMR car at the top of the table throughout the session. 

Nygaard commented: “It’s great to be on pole! We won the Six Hours of Austin last month after qualifying in seventh, so to be starting from the front gives us every chance of winning again. Pedro did a great job, as usual. Let’s see what happens tomorrow!”

In the #95 Young Driver AMR Vantage GTE, David Heinemeier Hansson (DN) and Nikki Thiim (DN), who set the fastest GTE Am qualifying lap, were in second place until the final moments of the session when they were just pushed into third by a hundredth of a second.

“That was a great start to our race weekend here in Fuji for all of our cars,” commented Team Principal John Gaw. “The #99 team has done a fantastic job to take pole in the GTE Pro class. It’s incredibly tough to do and they should be really pleased – they now need to convert that into a strong result tomorrow.”

The Six Hours of Fuji starts at 11am (Fuji time) on Sunday October 12.