2011 FIA GT1 : Perfect Weekend in Beijing for Young Driver Aston Martin

The Young Driver Aston Martin team completed a stunning double in a dramatic ninth round of the championship in Beijing. The combination of Darren Turner and Stefan Mucke in the No.8 car took the chequered flag in the Championship Race to record their first victory of the 2011 season. The result crowned a perfect two days for the German squad after Tomas Enge and Alex Muller in the No.7 car had taken the honours in the Qualifying Race earlier in the day.



It meant that Young Driver took the maximum 43 points in Beijing to climb to the top of the teams' standings. Turner and Mucke also move to second in thedrivers' table.

Third place for Lucas Luhr and Michael Krumm in the No.23 JRM Nissan GT-R consolidated their lead of the drivers' championship.

The race started and ended under the safety after a heavy downpour before the start made for treacherous conditions at the Goldenport circuit. The rate of attriition was high with only nine of the 18 starters running at the chequered flag.

It was looking like an Aston Martin 1-2-3 for the second consecutive race. The No.4 Hexis car of Andrea Piccini (Christian Hohenadel) was leading the race with six minutes left but like so many before him, Piccini pirouetted the car into the gravel at T7.

Enge in the No.7 had started the Championship Race from pole but there was a three-way shuffle at the pit stop. Turner in the No.8 got out ahead of Enge's co-driver Muller while Piccini in the Hexis No.4 leapfrogged them both to grab the lead before his mishap.

The No.41 Marc VDS Ford GT (Maxime Martin and Bertrand Baguette), the Qualifying Race pole-sitter, staged a great fightback through the field from 14th place to finish fifth (10 points).

Marc Basseng (Markus Winkelhock) in the No.38 car spun into the gravel at T1 soon after the start while Dominik Schwager parked the sister No.37 All-Inkl car at T13 under the same safety car just 15 minutes into the race.

The driver title ambitions of Basseng and Winkelhock took a big blow. Luhr and Krumm now head the standings on 131 points from Turner and Mucke on 120. The All-Inkl pair slipped to third on 101. Eleven drivers have a mathematical chance of taking the crown at the season-ending round 10 in San Luis.

In the teams' championship, the German Lamborghini squad dropped to fourth (182) behind Young Driver (224), JRM Racing (216) and Hexis (195).

Nico Verdonck (Exim Bank Team China Corvette No.12) and Enrique Bernoldi (Sumo Power No.20 Nissan GT-R) provided great entertainment in a heated squabble over fifth place in the closing stages.

The honours eventually went to Verdonck even though Bernoldi crossed ahead of him af the flag. The stewards ruled Bernoldi's overtaking move under the safety car was illegal and relegated him to sixth.

Bernoldi's demotion handed the Team China car fifth place - welcome cheer for home fans.

Ho-Pin Tung and Jeroen Den Boer in the No.11 Team China Corvette were running 11th, just out of the points, before Den Boer became yet another casualty with eight minutes left.

Tomorrow the spotlight shifts to Beijing's iconic Olympic Park where the Beijing GT1 World Supercars event takes place.

The GT1 race cars will take part in a demonstration street race on a street circuit layout that runs between the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. It promises to be a spectacular climax to GT1 World's successful tour of China.



[Source : FIA GT - Official]