Blancpain Endurance Series 2013, Silverstone

The factory Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 of Darren Turner, Stefan Mucke and Fred Makowiecki took a dominant victory in round two of the Blancpain Endurance Series at Silverstone, leading all but 13 laps of the three hour event.

Darren Turner started the bright yellow car from pole, but lost out to Lucas Ordonez at Copse Corner on lap one, the Spaniard taking the RJN Nissan GT-R into the lead around the outside of the Aston. Turner was content to follow at a safe distance, before seizing his opportunity to take the lead when Ordonez was baulked lapping a slower car at The Loop.

From there on it was plain sailing for the works Aston Martin squad, which cruised to a 20 second victory over the pair of WRT Audi R8 LMS ultras.

The battle between the two Battlefield 4 sponsored WRT Audi’s lasted for most of the race. Laurens Vanthoor overhauled team mate Frank Stippler in the middle of the event, and a delay when Stippler handed over the Eric Sandstrom at the final pitstop sealed a distant second place for the #1 machine.

The RJN Nissan of Lucas Ordonez, GT Academy winner Peter Pyzera and Alex Buncombe faded to 10th position by the chequered flag, with Pyzera earning a drive through penalty for overtaking under yellow flags. This was still enough for a delighted team to take victory in the Pro-Am class.

Fourth place went to the lead JRM Nissan GT-R of Peter Dumbreck, Lucas Luhr and Steven Kane, after some astonishing last lap heroics from Kane. The Nissan made up two places on the final lap, passing the Kessel Ferrari 458 of Daniel Zampieri and the Marc VDS BMW Z4 of Marcus Paltalla in the dying seconds of the race.

The Gentleman Trophy class victory fell to the ARC Bratislava run Porsche 911 of Miro Konopka and Ahmed Al-Harthy.

The full race classification can be found here