FIA GT1, Beijing - Qualifying Race Report

Aston Martin secured a podium clean sweep in Beijing on Saturday morning. The two Young Driver AMR cars finished first and second in the Qualifying Race, with the nr 4 Hexis AMR DBR9 taking third place in the rain.

The nr 48 DKR www-discount.de Lamborghini was forced to miss the Qualifying Race due to an engine change, resulting in 17 GT1 cars on the grid on the Beijing Goldenport circuit.

All cars made it through turn 1 and the nr 41 Marc VDS Racing Team Ford GT held on to the lead on the opening lap.

Unfortunately their lead did not last long as on lap 3 the Ford GT went off the road and into the gravel trap at turn 7. When the nr 47 DKR www-discount.de Lamborghini then also went off at turn 13 the safety car was deployed.

On lap 10 the race was restarted, with the nr 8 Young Driver AMR Aston Martin DBR9 now leading the sister car. Turner and Müller remained within 1.5 seconds of each other, with the nr 38 All-Inkl.com Münnich Motorsport Lamborghini behind them - Winkelhock unable to catch the two cars despite setting fast lap times.

In the pit window the nr 8 had a slow get away, which allowed the Lamborghini to close the gap and pass it into turn 7 - shortly after the nr 38 would be given a drive through penalty though. The fight for second place also involved the nr 23 Nissan of Luhr and Krumm as well as the nr 4 Hexis AMR Aston. On lap 34 the Aston passed the Nissan into turn 2.

After serving its penalty the Lamborghini Murcielago rejoined in eleventh place, but it would not be able to fight its way back as Ho-Pin Tung spun his Exim Bank Team China Corvette into the gravel trap a handful of laps later. His mistake meant the safety car was deployed again and it would remain on the track until the chequered flag was shown, resulting in the Young Driver AMR nr 7 of Tomas Enge and Alex Muller taking the win