After Jann Mardenborough took a magnificent pole position for today’s British GT race at the Nürburgring, he got to taste the Champagne on the podium when he and his team mate Alex Buncombe took third position after a close fought race.
The race got underway after two warm up laps, which gave the competitors a chance to get used to the slippery track. Jann made a smooth getaway and finished the first lap of the one-hour race with a healthy three second gap back to the Aston Martin in second place.
Jann quickly settled into his race rhythm and increased his advantage with each lap of the Nürburgring Grand Prix track. When the pit window opened he dived into the pits to hand over the Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 to Alex, who immediately set off to take the car to the chequered flag.
As Alex fought off the advances of the second-placed Aston Martin the team received an order for him to serve a stop-go penalty. It transpired that the pit stop was just half a second shy of the minimum time. When Alex rejoined he was third and this was how the ordered remained until the end.
“It’s a strange feeling to be disappointed when you’ve had a podium finish but we wanted a higher position today,” said Jann. “The team told me it’s good that I think like that though! It’s easy to say ‘if only’ but the fact is that everything is going in the right direction for us now.”
“It’s good to yet again have an excuse to talk about what a great job Jann is doing,” said Darren Cox, General Manager of Nissan in Europe. “After four years of us telling everyone about the GT Academy programme people are starting to believe in it now, so much so that copycat versions are appearing!”
