A LAP OF SILVERSTONE IN THE ASTON MARTIN LMP1 CAR  WITH DARREN TURNER

Silverstone, 9 September, 2009. Aston Martin Racing  heads to Silverstone for the final round of the 2009 Le Mans  Series on 13 September. Works driver Darren Turner takes us  for a lap of the Northamptonshire circuit, the home of British  motor racing, in the stunning Gulf-liveried Aston Martin  LMP1. “I really enjoy racing in the Le Mans Series. One  of the great things about it is the different classes all in  the same race (LMP1, LMP2, GT1 and GT2), so there is always a  lot of overtaking. We had a great result for Aston Martin with  a 1-2-3- in Germany on 23 August and that  has set up my colleagues in the 007 car with a great  opportunity to take the title at Silverstone. We’ll certainly  be doing all we can to help Stefan (Mücke), Tomáš (Enge) and  Jan (Charouz) to take the win and the  championship. “Running three cars again at Silverstone means that  there will only be Harold Primat and me in 009. I imagine that  I’ll do the first two hours and then get back into the car for  another two-hour stint to the finish. Hard work, but I love  it. “Silverstone is definitely one of the best circuits  in the world. It has a great combination of medium and  high-speed sections that are a rarity at circuits these days,  as well as the more technical, second-gear corners. It is  definitely great fun to race at Silverstone in something as  fast and powerful as the Aston Martin LMP1 car, especially  through the fast, flowing  sections. “Silverstone is also the last race of our season so  there will be a good atmosphere. It is always great to race at  home on a circuit you know well. I am looking forward to the  weekend and having lots of family, friends and personal  sponsors around.” COPSE “Copse is a very fast corner. You’ll probably find  a few people in qualifying trying to go through there in  sixth, but it is likely to be fifth gear for most. You have a  small window to get the turning point right and carry good  apex speed as you can’t see the apex. Thankfully it opens out,  but we can’t really run wide and over the rumble strips, like  some people do, as the LMP1 car has minimal ground clearance  so we have to be tidy.” BECKETTS “The Becketts complex is probably the best  combination in the world. You go in flat out and then it is a  delicate balance of gradually reducing speed until the last  right hander while making sure you can get a good exit onto  the Hangar Straight. You could probably carry more speed  through all the turns but that would compromise your exit.  There is obviously quite a performance differential between  the different Le Mans Series classes, so you are constantly  overtaking throughout the lap. Silverstone has some good long  straights, like Hangar, where we can blast past the slower  cars at up to 190mph (at Le Mans, where we set the cars up  with less downforce, the Aston Martin will reach up to  220mph). But the track is so wide at Silverstone that you can  also overtake around the outside through many of the turns  that can be quite spectacular – if a little hairy off the  racing line.” STOWE, VALE, CLUB “Stowe is a challenging, fast corner that drops  away after the apex but the camber helps you. If you get a  good exit you can slingshot down the inside of people to  overtake into Vale before you hit  Club. “Club is a compromise and another challenging  corner. I always have the feeling I could have done it better  but when I try something different it is no quicker. You have  to short shift to keep the traction under  control.” ABBEY “Abbey is a corner I really like. You can see the  BRDC farm and the grandstand ahead of you. Here we can run a  good amount of the car over the curbs and carry a fair amount  of speed in third to make sure you get a good exit through  Bridge.” BRIDGE, PRIORY, BROOKLANDS AND  LUFFIELD “Bridge is a fast right that you just lift through  in fifth before it takes you into ‘the complex’, the slowest  section of the track. You can line yourself up on the exit and  keep your speed up to force yourself up the inside for a pass  going into Priory. “Priory is a difficult corner with a blind apex  over the top of a crest. But it’s an exciting place to  overtake. You have to commit yourself fully to make sure you  are right up alongside, or slightly in front of, the other car  so that they can see you before they turn  in. “With enough grip you can also make a dash up the  inside into Brooklands and get high on the curb. This slower  section can be a bit awkward with the GT2 cars. Some of them  have great traction and you can end up having to fight them  off through here. You dive from Brooklands to hug the  inside line around Luffield where the grip tends to be  better.” WOODCOTE “The exit from Luffield is very important to make  sure you get a good blast through Woodcote and onto the start  finish straight. It’s a very wide entry but then narrows past  the pit lane where you have no real time to look at your pit  board – especially if you are at the far end. The line in the  dry or wet is very different through Woodcote, probably  because of all the painted lines that can make the car kick  about in the wet. In the dry it’s an easy corner but much more  challenging when it’s wet.”