Aston Martin Racing put in a stunning performance on the first day of the Grand Prix of Long Beach being the quickest car in the first practice session and qualifying on pole position from a field of 36 cars for tomorrow’s second round of the American Le Mans Series.
Drivers Adrian Fernandez (MX) and Harold Primat (CH) are competing in their third race this year with Aston Martin Racing. In the morning practice, Fernandez (MX) posted the fastest lap time of the session in 1m15.112s, a full 1.370s faster than the second placed LMP1 car.
In qualifying, amongst a comparative field of petrol-powered cars, Fernandez posted the quickest lap time of 1m13.213s in the Lowe’s sponsored 007 car, 0.072 seconds ahead of the second-placed LMP car. In a session that was red flagged once and with plenty of traffic to cope with, the team strategically chose their time for a quick lap. As the pit lane went green close to the end of the session and with a quick exit from the pits, Fernandez was able to negotiate the 1.968 mile circuit free of traffic.
Team Principal, George Howard Chappell said: We’re obviously very pleased with pole position, it was a tough challenge from the second placed car but Adrian did a super job and the Michelin tyres were fantastic.
Fernandez said: It’s awesome to qualify on pole and especially at Long Beach as I have a lot of friends here and this place means so much to me. It’s my first time here with the Aston Martin team and we knew that it would be tough against the LMP2s. I was right on the limit with my quickest lap. We have a tough challenge tomorrow but I hope we can make it our first win of the year.
Primat said: The car felt good straight away but the track is quite bumpy as it is a street circuit, so we are pleased with this result. We made some minor modifications in the second practice and I think we have a good and reliable car for tomorrow’s race.
