Aston Martin Racing will start the final round of the American Le Mans Series from fourth and fifth positions in the GT1 class following Friday's qualifying session at Laguna Seca, with all four drivers reporting handling problems.
The two DBR9s have struggled for grip throughout the meeting at the Californian circuit, and the team will now work overnight to make changes ahead of the four-hour race which will run into Saturday night.
Darren Turner was fifth fastest in the #57 car he shares with David Brabham, but claimed to have continued to suffer with excessive understeer.
“This has highlighted areas that we need to work on over the winter," Brabham said, "We have been to new tracks and been really quick, and now we have come here and we are not. It will be good for us in the future to understand why, and fix it so that we are better next year.”
Peter Kox set team's best lap, taking fourth fastest time in the #58 DBR9 shared with Pedro Lamy, but remained more upbeat for the season finale.
“The race will last for four hours, and the result can go either way,” said the Dutchman, who had a trip into the gravel during final practice following a minor mistake, “The DBR9 always gets better as the race goes on, and that is realistically what we can hope for.”
Team principal George Howard-Chappell pointed to a conflict between the car and its tyres as the root cause of the handling problems.
“The tyre and car combination is not working particularly well," he said, "We have seen it before and it is just not good here. This is still a development year, we have not done that much racing, particularly out here in America, and this sort of thing can happen.”
