Aston Martin enjoyed a fine start to the new
FIA GT Championship season with victories in the GT1 and GT4 classes at
Silverstone.
In poor weather with heavy fog and rain, the famous Tourist Trophy was won by Karl Wendlinger and Ryan Sharp in the #33 Jetalliance Aston Martin DBR9 while Allan Simonsen and Philipp Peter finished third in the Gigawave DBR9 after holding off intense competition in a thrilling climax to the race.
The second Jetalliance car driven by Lukas Lichtner-Hoyer and Alex Muller claimed a solid sixth place after starting from ninth on the GT1 grid.
In GT3 where six Aston Martin DBRS9s were in action, Brixia Racing in their debut race achieved the highlight result claiming a third place podium finish in race one.
The new GT4 category for production-standard race cars saw Aston Martins victorious in both races, with Nikolaus Mayr-Melnhof in the Jetalliance Vantage N24 taking victory in Saturday's race. The final race on Sunday saw eight Vantage N24s start on the grid and in a gripping tussle for the lead, Jamie Smyth in the Beechdean N24 triumphed with fellow Aston Martin runners Klaus Engelhorn third and Jurgen Van Hover fourth.
Across the pond, the new Vantage GT2 also made its race debut, with Paul Drayson and Johnny Cocker taking eleventh place in the Drayson-Barwell run car in the third round of the American Le Mans Series at Long Beach.
"We are very proud of the achievements of all the Aston Martin teams across all four classes of GT racing this weekend," head of product communications and motorsport for Aston Martin David King said. "Jetalliance has made a perfect start to their FIA GT1 campaign and their support for GT4 really paid off too with a great win for Nikolaus Mayr-Melnhof in his debut race in one of four Jetalliance-entered Vantage N24s.
"The third place in GT1 for the Gigawave team was an amazing achievement in their first GT1 season and in GT3 the competition was incredible, with 50 cars from nine different marques battling it out, making a debut third place finish for the Brixia team all the more special."
