"Aston Martin is back!"
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ByEurosport
Published 21/03/2005 at 16:09 GMT
Aston Martin has put itself back at the forefront of international motor racing by winning the GT1 class at the Sebring 12 Hours on Sunday. The British marque was up against rivals such as Corvette, Ferrari, Saleen, Maserati and Dodge Viper but the DBR9 r
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Record crowds saw David Brabham, Stephane Ortelli and Darren Turner drive the No57 car to a famous victory, beating pre-race favourites Corvette in their own back yard. The American manufacturer had led for the first eight hours before two incidents allowed the DBR9 to hit the front.
"Aston Martin is back!" said an ecstatic David Brabham. "This is just such a fantastic achievement for everyone involved in the programme. The team were just superb - to come here and beat such a strong Corvette team is a massive achievement for Aston Martin Racing."
Car 58, driven by Peter Kox, Pedro Lamy and Stephane Sarrazin took 8th place in GT1, finishing 15th overall, after a collision knocked them down the field but a rapid repair enable Stephane Sarrazin, Peter Kox and Pedro Lamy to at least make the finish.
"Our car is very fast - the team did such a good job to repair it so quickly and get it back to the circuit," said World rally ace Sarrazin. "We were just a little unlucky today, but it gives us great encouragement ahead of Silverstone and Le Mans."
A victory at Sebring represents an extraordinary achievement in what is a test and development year for a brand new car and team. "This is a fantastic result for us," said Team Principal George-Howard Chappell.
"Whilst we still have much work to do ahead of Silverstone and Le Mans, we can clearly be pleased with a win in our debut race against such established competition," he added. "Our primary objective here was for both cars to finish - anything beyond that was clearly going to be a welcome bonus.
"We've been encouraged by the reliability of the cars throughout our testing programme so far and the fact that they also had the pace to achieve victory here at Sebring is testament to the efforts of the whole Aston Martin Racing team.
The whole team really appreciate the overwhelming support from the Sebring crowd throughout this week - especially given the strong home competition!"
Team Director, David Richards added: "This marks the beginning of a new era for Aston Martin."
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