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Silverstone one-two for the Aston Martin Racing team was the perfect result as both Aston Martin and Prodrive are just a stone's throw away from the famous circuit, and gave the British fans a chance to see the wonderful DBR9s putting down a performance to remember.
My weekend got off to a great start by throwing the DBR9 around in qualifying and putting it on the pole, while Peter Kox, in the other team car, made it an Aston Martin front row. I found qualifying quite interesting as I was able to put all the things I teach young drivers at my Brabham Performance Clinic into practice. I know my level of focus was very high for the Q session, and the car was so well balanced, that the near perfect lap was possible.
My team-mate Darren Turner started the race and got away well, leading on the first lap. However, Pedro Lamy, in the other team car, got squeezed out and dropped down to fifth. The battle up front was a close one with the Maserati MC12 in second place. The Corvette C5 was also close to the action, and these cars just slowly pulled away from the rest of the field. Darren was able to pull out a gap, while Pedro moved up to fourth.
When Darren came in for his pit-stop, I jumped in and got back out into the lead. Due to the very fast pit-stops from the team, the other car, now driven by Peter again, was up to second.
Peter and I maintained a 4-5secs gap for most of the stint, then I started to pull away as Peter began struggling with his rear tyres. He then found himself in a battle for second with the MC12, and I was able to pull further away.
I came in for my pit-stop some twelve seconds in front, and was able to hand over to Darren in good shape. He went back out in the lead and things were looking good as we had led all the race.
However, Darren then suffered a similar problem with the rear tyres, and Pedro - having taken over again in the sister car, began catching him quickly. Our advantage just disappeared, and they were racing nose-to-tail with just a few minutes left.
