Long Beach, 16 April 2010. Aston Martin Racing put in a stunningperformance on the first day of the Grand Prix of Long Beach being thequickest car in the first practice session and qualifying on poleposition from a field of 36 cars for tomorrow's second round ofthe American Le Mans Series.
Drivers Adrian Fernandez (MX) and Harold Primat (CH) are competing intheir third race this year with Aston Martin Racing. In the morningpractice, Fernandez (MX) posted the fastest lap time of the session in1m15.112s, a full 1.370s faster than the second placed LMP1 car.
In qualifying, amongst a comparative field of petrol-powered cars,Fernandez posted the quickest lap time of 1m13.213s in the Lowe'ssponsored 007 car, 0.072 seconds ahead of the second-placed LMP1 car. Ina session that was red flagged once and with plenty of traffic to copewith, the team strategically chose their time for a quick lap. As thepit lane went green close to the end of the session and with a quickexit from the pits, Fernandez was able to negotiate the 1.968 milecircuit free of traffic.
Team Principal, George Howard Chappell said: We're obviously verypleased with pole position, it was a tough challenge from the secondplaced car but Adrian did a super job and the Michelin tyres werefantastic.
Fernandez said: It's awesome to qualify on pole and especially atLong Beach as I have a lot of friends here and this place means so muchto me. It's my first time here with the Aston Martin team and weknew that it would be tough against the LMP2s. I was right on the limitwith my quickest lap. We have a tough challenge tomorrow but I hope wecan make it our first win of the year.
Primat said: The car felt good straight away but the track is quitebumpy as it is a street circuit, so we are pleased with this result. Wemade some minor modifications in the second practice and I think we havea good and reliable car for tomorrow's race.
The Grand Prix of Long Beach commences at 16:40 (PDT) on Saturday 17April 2010. Live coverage can be found at www.americanlemans.com andthrough Radio Le Mans at www.radiolemans.com.
-source: amr
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