Hexis AMR crowned GT1 World Teams Champion, Young Driver AMR loses out on drivers’ title

09 Nov 2011

While the Young Driver AMR pairing of Darren Turner and Stefan Mucke went into the penultimate round of the FIA GT1 World Championship second in the drivers’ title standings and leaders in the teams’ rankings, an accident in qualifying cruelly precluded their DBR9’s further participation. With the distance to Argentina’s demanding Lago Potrero de los Funes circuit, near San Luis, too great to deliver the necessary components to repair the car in time for the qualifying and championship races, Aston Martin’s sole hope of glory over the November 5th/6th weekend remained in the slim chance of Hexis AMR overcoming a substantial deficit in the teams’ rankings.

Pole position for the qualifying race had gone to the JRM Nissan GT-R of drivers’ title leaders Lucas Luhr/Michael Krumm with the Hexis Astons of Christian Hohenadel/Andrea Piccini and Clivio Piccini/Stefan Dusseldorp in sixth and eighth places respectively, ahead of the Alex Muller/Tomas Enge DBR9 in ninth. After a three way battle for fifth place in the race, it was the latter who came out on top from the All-Inkl Lamborghini of Marcus Winklehock/Marc Basseng and the David Brabham/Jamie Campbell-Walter Sumo Power Nissan Skyline GT-R; the Piccione/Dusseldorp Aston took eighth place while the sister DBR9 finished two laps down and last after problems, still leaving Hexis AMR a large 32 points in arrears in the teams rankings. At the front second place behind the Team Exim China Chevrolet Corvette of debut winners Yebuer Buurman/Francesco Pastorelli was sufficient to give the JRM Nissan pairing of Luhr/Krumm the drivers’ title with the championship race yet to come.
That began with a multi-car crash off the line which eliminated three Lamborghinis and two Nissans, including that of Luhr/Krumm, and saw the sole Young Driver Aston tapped into a spin. Having avoided the melee, the DBR9 of Piccione/Dusseldorp had climbed to third place at the flag, behind the winning Corvette of Buurman/Pastorelli and the Manual Lauck/Christopher Hasse Lamborghini. Fifth place for the Hohenadel/Piccini Aston Martin, which crossed the line minus its bonnet, was enough to give Hexis AMR the teams title victory by just two points from JR Motorsports on 232 with Young Driver AMR third just one point behind; for 12 of the 3.89 mile laps at the start of the race the Muller/Enge DBR9 had led until having to serve a drive-through penalty for overtaking under safety car conditions, dropping the Aston to tenth and last place at the flag.

Victory in the FIA GT1 World Championship for Teams came at the end of a seventh international racing season for the venerable Aston Martin DBR9 in an extremely competitive category, which began with a maiden win on its debut in the 2005 Sebring 12 Hours. During this year’s 20 races, Hexis AMR, which took second in the 2010 teams’ championship, and German squad Young Driver AMR took five wins between them and 22 podium positions; impressively, despite missing both races in the Argentine finale Young Driver AMR’s Darren Turner/Stefan Mucke still finished runner-up in the 2011 drivers’ championship.

Philippe Dumas, team principal of France-based Hexis AMR, commented after the race: "It’s just an incredible moment. It seems everyone in the paddock is happy that we took the World Championship, which means we deserve it. We never gave up believing that the title was still within reach.

“The suspense during the final race was incredible, but the result was just magical. We’ve worked so hard throughout the year so it is fantastic to be rewarded with the World Championship."