Happy Easter: Young Driver AMR takes back-to-back victory at Silverstone

Young Driver AMR had a perfect start into the 2014 season of the FIA World Endurance Championship. At the season opening round at Silverstone/England, Nicki Thiim, Kristian Poulsen und David Heinemeier Hansson took the victory in the GTE-AM class in their Aston Martin Racing entered Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin Vantage GTE. Young Driver AMR are back-to-back winners at Silverstone as the team also took the victory in England at last years season opening round.

The victory at Silverstone was the toughest FIA WEC win yet for Young Driver AMR. After a ride height change in the week leading up to the first event of the season, all three Young Driver AMR drivers struggled with the handling of the car during practise and qualifying and subsequently qualified fourth in class.

David Heinemeier Hansson took the started in his first race in the Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin and handed the car after a strong double stint in difficult and changeable weather conditions to Kristian Poulsen, running temporarily second in it’s class. During the middle part of the race Poulsen took the class lead, before he handed the Vantage GTE to Nicki Thiim for the final part of the race. The battle for the victory in the final two hours was then a rather special one for Young Driver AMR, as Thiim fought with Young Driver AMR team member Christoffer Nygaard, who started this weekend in a sister car of Aston Martin Racing.

Nygaard and Thiim exchanged the lead several times, before Thiim eventually built a gap and secured the victory. Due to heavy rain in the last hour of the race, the race was red flagged 26 minutes before the scheduled end. The victory of Young Driver AMR at the home race of Aston Martin Racing comes at a very special date, as Aston Martin Racing celebrated its tenth anniversary this weekend at Silverstone.

After the brilliant start of the season, there is no time to rest for the team as the next race is scheduled in less then two weeks at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.

Result 6 hours of Silverstone GTE-Am class

1. Thiim/Poulsen/Heinemeier Hanson (Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin Vantage GTE)
2. Nygaard/Dalla Lana/Lamy (Aston Martin Vantage GTE)
3. Wyatt/Bird/Rugolo (Ferrari 458 Italia)
4. Ried/Bachler/Al Qubaisi (Porsche 911 RSR)
5. Mowlem/Patterson/Collins (Ferrari 458 Italia)

David Heinemeier Hanson: "It’s great to start in a new team, in a new car and in a new class with a victory. Our Aston Martin was certainly not the fastest car out there. We were a little bit down on speed. But we keep the car on track, drove a clean race and brought it home in very difficult conditions.”

Nicki Thiim: "We struggled a little bit with the pace in the dry. But in the wet, the car was very strong. A big thank goes to the team, as we came here and didn’t know what to expect. After a recent change of five millimetres in the ride height of the car we were really lacking speed in the dry. We have a new engineer und with David a new driver. We gained pace in every session and we were really there at the end. We are definitely there for the season.”

Kristian Poulsen: "It worked out for us at the end, but it was really tough. David and Nicki and the whole team did really good job today, so we had this great result. Our pace in the race was really good and very stable. I drove a double stint, which went really well. I looked after my tires in the first stint and that paid of in the second stint.”

Jan Struve, team owner Young Driver AMR: "It was a extremely difficult weekend. We had a late rule change in the ride height of our car. It came only last week, so we couldn’t test this before. Due to this, we couldn’t use last year’s data. In absolute lap times, we were not the quickest, but we didn’t make any mistakes. The entire team did a perfect job and this was the key for today’s success. It was hard work, but the drivers and the team made it work and at the end, it worked out. We won and our team member Christoffer Nygaard finished second in a sister car, we couldn’t ask for more this weekend.”

Young Driver AMR