Photo: Jan Struve (Young Driver AMR), Louise Beckett, Nicki Thiim, Marco Sorensen, Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones
Of the original trio that have supported the World Endurance Championship since its inception, Aston Martin Racing was the only team that had yet to win the GT Drivers Championship heading into the season, after Porsche broke Ferrari’s streak of three consecutive titles in 2015.
With an upgraded Vantage GTE facing competition from the brand-new Ferrari 488 GTE and Ford GT, the opposition in 2016 was arguably tougher than ever before. However, Aston Martin’s Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen proved more than a match for everything that was thrown at them and ended the year with a flourish on the top step of the podium in Bahrain.
Starting the year with Darren Turner alongside them in the No. 95 car, Thiim and Sorensen kicked off with a podium at Silverstone behind the two dominant Ferraris, but suffered a setback at Spa when Thiim was spun into the barriers at the Courbe Paul Frere by an LMP2 car and launched into a roll.
Needing to make up for lost ground at Le Mans, AMR drove a cautious race, hoping to pick up the pieces and capitalise on problems for others. Whilst it didn’t yield a podium, Thiim, Sorensen and Turner were still rewarded with points for second of the WEC-registered entries; with neither Ferrari making the finish, they were propelled to the championship lead.
After Turner switched to the No. 97 car for the Nürburgring, Thiim and Sorensen continued their momentum with third, again behind the two Ferraris, then finished third again in Mexico as Turner and Richie Stanaway took AMR’s first win of the year. That briefly put Turner into the lead of the championship, but victory for the ‘Dane Train’ at COTA thrust them back to the head of the standings with only three rounds to go.
Heading to Japan for round seven, Thiim and Sorensen held a 12-point advantage over the No. 71 Ferrari of Sam Bird and Davide Rigon, who had won at both Silverstone and Spa. However, neither of the two Asian races at Fuji or Shanghai would have much effect on the points race, as Ford swept both races with 1-2 finishes, each time ahead of the No. 51 Ferrari shared by Gianmaria Bruni and James Calado.
A fourth and a fifth apiece meant the gap remained at 12 points heading to Bahrain, where Aston Martin’s Dunlop tyres gave them the edge over the competition. Turner and Jonny Adam set exactly the same time in qualifying to take pole in the No. 97, before No. 95 came to the fore in the race and sealed the title with a second win of the season.
Although Bruni and Calado finished on the podium in every race they finished this year and won at the Nurburgring, costly DNFs at Spa and Le Mans gave them too much ground to make up. They still finished third ahead of the two Fords, which ended the year separated by just half a point, with Stefan Muecke and Olivier Pla narrowly edging Harry Tincknell and Andy Priaulx.
Porsche’s best performance of the year came at the season-opener at Silverstone. In the swansong year for the 911 RSR before it is replaced by a new model in 2016, the semi-works Dempsey-Proton Racing car of Richard Lietz and Michael Christensen was third when Christensen suffered a suspension failure. Their best finish in a disappointing season was a fourth at Spa. Two factory-entered cars have been announced already for the LMGTE Pro category for next season.
Roll on 2017!
