Monday, 21st April 2008

Aston Martin squad starts campaign with third at Silverstone.

Gigawave Motorsport enjoyed a fine start to its FIA GT Championship campaign with a solid third place finish in the opening round of the year at Silverstone.

Allan Simonsen and Phillip Peter drove a faultless race at the wheel of the Aston Martin DBR9 and found themselves in the middle of a three-way fight for victory in the closing stages before eventually losing out to the race-winning Jetalliance DBR9 of Karl Wendlinger and Ryan Sharp and the Vitaphone Maserati of Andrea Bertolini and Michael Bartels.

Simonsen found the going tough on intermediate tyres early in the race, which started in damp conditions, but had moved into the lead by the time he pitted to hand the car over to team-mate Peter – who rejoined on slick tyres.

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He worked his way back into the lead of the race before a late Safety Car period bunched up the field with barely minutes to go and he could do little to stop the two cars behind making their way through to demote him to third at the flag.

“We are disappointed not to have won outright, but in reality this is a fantastic achievement for a new team,” he said. “The car was really well prepared but, by the end, the tyres had gone past their best.”

Team manager Steve Hagger admitted he was thrilled with the result, even after losing out on a potential win late on and paid tribute to the team for its performance.

“I'm over the moon with the result,” he said. “It's a great achievement for a new team to finish on the podium in such a competitive category. All credit goes to the guys in the team who worked so hard over the winter to put everything together in such a short space of time.”

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