Aston Martin Racing’s 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) programme got off to a flying start in April with a double victory in the GT class at the Six Hours of Silverstone, followed in May by a double podium at Spa in Belgium. At Silverstone, the #97 V8-powered Vantage GTE, driven by Darren Turner, Stefan Mücke and Bruno Senna, finished in first place in the GT Pro category, while the #95 car of Danish trio Christoffer Nygaard, Kristian Poulsen and Allan Simonsen triumphed in the GT Am class.

Afterwards, Turner said: “We couldn’t have asked for a better start to the season. Stefan, Bruno and myself all pushed hard throughout what was, at times, a difficult race. However, the car was prepared perfectly with a lot of hard work.” John Gaw, Team Principal at Aston Martin Racing, concluded: “We got much more than we expected out of the first race of the season; we came here aiming to score points with all four cars. This certainly bodes well for the championship.”

The race-winning 2013-specification #97 Vantage GTE—which shares its bonded aluminium structure and basic engine and suspension architecture with Aston Martin’s sportiest road-going model, the V8 Vantage—completed 171 laps of the 3.7-mile Silverstone circuit, equating to a total race distance of more than 630 miles at an average speed of 108mph.

Bruno Senna, Stefan Mücke and Darren Turner celebrate victory in the GT Pro class

Three weeks later at Spa, the #98 Vantage GTE Pro car, driven by Senna, Frédéric Makowiecki and Rob Bell, took second place in the six-hour race. Their prospects of challenging for the race win were dashed when an untimely safety car interruption caused them to fall behind their competitors in the early stages of the race. Senna said: “It was a great result but we also had a lot of bad luck. The safety car came out after the Ferrari had pitted and before we had, so it played to their advantage.”

GTE Am trio Simonsen, Poulsen and Nygaard also finished second in class having pushed their 2012-specification #95 Vantage GTE to its limits for the duration of the six hours. The FIA WEC resumes with the 24 Hours of Le Mans on 22-23 June.