Gulf & Aston Martin take 1-2 victory
09 Nov 2013
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WEC Round 7 – Shanghai, China |
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| Gulf lubricated race cars scored another impressive win at the penultimate round of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) as motorsport partners, Aston Martin Racing swept to victory in the GTE-PRO category with Darren Turner (GB) and Stefan Mücke (DE) in the #97 Vantage GTE taking a start-to-finish win at Shangai. |
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| Other than in the exchange of pit stops, the pair was never headed, starting from pole position - which they had narrowly taken, the previous day ahead of sister Gulf-liveried #99 car of Bruno Senna (BR), Richie Stanaway (NZ) and Pedro Lamy (P) – and maintaining the top position throughout the race. |
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| The Blue and Orange #99 Vantage GTE also ran an excellent race, falling to fourth in the category for a while, before the team clawed their way back to second, which Bruno Senna took, at around the half way mark, with one of the overtaking manoeuvres of the race - having hounded fellow ex-F1 star, Kimui Kobashi over several laps until he made a slight mistake, which allowed Senna by. After that, Richie Stanaway and Pedro Lamy ensured that they held their place to make it a 1-2 in GTE Pro for the Gulf cars – finishing nose to tail with the #97 a mere 1.6 seconds behind after 6 hours. It looked for the majority of the race that it was going to be double victory for Aston Martin Racing as GTE-AM polesitters Kristian Poulsen (DN) and Christoffer Nygaard (DN) and Nicki Thiim, in the #95 car comfortably led the category until electrical gremlins brought about the car’s retirement. |
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| In GTE-AM the #96 Vantage GTE of Jamie Campbell-Walter (GB), Stuart Hall (GB) and Johnny Adam finished third, after a hard fought race in which they gradually hauled their way up through the GTE-AM field. It was the third podium in a row for the #96 car and helps maintain their challenge for Championship honours in both the Team and Drivers’ standings. |
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| “Firstly, I would like to congratulate our motorsport partners, Aston Martin Racing on a superb performance at Shanghai, It has been a very impressive weekend all around,” remarked Gulf Oil International Brand and Marketing Manager, Sam Cork. “The team has made our sixty guests extremely welcome and they got to look behind the scenes in the Aston Martin Racing PIt Garage to understand more about what Gulf means, both in brand terms and also in terms of products. These have again proved themselves up to the task in the heat of competition and today’s race helped give our guests an understanding of how our partnership with Aston Martin racing helps deliver a winning performance, underlining the quality of Gulf products.” The WEC finale will take place in Bahrain on November 30th and Gulf and Aston Martin Racing go into it leading all of the GTE categories – both PRO and AM - for Teams and Drivers. With today’s result Aston Martin Racing has also now taken the lead in the GT Manufacturers title, with the final race to come. Updates about team and all of Gulf's activities and products can be found on the Gulf Facebook page: www.facebook.com/gulfoilinternational as well, of course, as on the Gulf Oil International website: www.gulfoilltd.com For all other purposes please contact Sam Cork at Gulf Oil International:sc@gulfoilltd.com. |
