fia-gt3-hexis-racing-silverstone-aston-martin-thomas-accary-mena-rodrigues-lagniez-makowiecki

FIA GT3 European Championship, Rounds 1 & 2, Silverstone April 19-20 2008

No.8 Aston Martin DBRS9: Thomas Accary / Pierre-Brice Mena

No.9 Aston Martin DBRS9: Manu Rodrigues / Julien Rodrigues

No.10 Aston Martin DBRS9: Jean-Claude Lagniez / Frédéric Makowiecki

Hexis Racing’s Aston Martins took part in the opening rounds of the FIA GT3 European Championship on their ‘home’ ground. The Ledenon-based squad had an eventful week-end, but after setting the pace in both free practice sessions, they clocked second time in qualifying as well as in Race Two and claimed an Aston Martin Manufacturers Cup class win on the Sunday.

Qualifying: 25 minutes before qualifying, the Race Director informed the competitors that fuel could not be added in the pitlane between the two sessions. It was too late for Hexis Racing to refuel the three cars before the beginning of the first session, and the drivers of the number 8 and 10 entries were forced to limit their qualifying mileage. In the first session, young Thomas Accary set a superb 5th time, despite stopping early in the session to save fuel for his teammate Pierre-Brice Mena. Then it was Frédéric Makowiecki’s turn to shine in the second session, and he managed to qualify the #10 DBRS9 on the outside of the first row of the grid in only three flying laps.

Race One: Thomas Accary made an amazing start to run second in early stages, then dropped back to 4th under changeable conditions. Going into the pitlane for driver change, he forgot to start the clock watch so the team couldn’t estimate the right time to rejoin the race. Pierre-Brice Mena restarted too early, and the car was given a stop and go penalty.

The Hexis Racing Rookie pair dropped back to 14th on the line just behind the No.10 and 9 sister cars driven by Lagniez/Makowiecki and Manu/Julien Rodrigues, who had recovered from 32th and 26th on the grid respectively.

Race Two: Hexis Racing lost one of their cars at the start when Pierre-Brice was forced to run sideways on the grass to avoid contact with a car spinning just in front of him. The No.8 Aston Martin was collected by a Morganin the process and retired. Fred ‘Mako’ was fighting among the leading pack with a Ford GT, a Ferrari, a Corvette, a Morgan and a Porsche. He was 4th when he pitted for driver change.

Julien Rodrigues pushed hard to make it to 12th from 18th on the grid, but uncle Manu was hampered by clutch problems and the Rodrigues family duo had to be content with 17th. Jean-Claude Lagniez drove the second surviving Hexis Racing Aston Martin home in 9th position, and took a well-deserved Manufacturers Cup win.

The next FIA GT3 European Championship rounds will take place in Monza on May 17-18.

Official results at: www.fiagt.com

Hexis Racing’s website : www.hexisracing.com

- Romain Didier / future racing commm, also photo -

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