A star performance by Chacombe racing driver Darren Turner and Stefan Mucke in the FIA GT1 championship race in Abu Dhabi salvaged a fifth-place finish for the duo after a disastrous end to what was most likely an assured victory in the qualifying race.

After topping the timesheets in the first free practice session of the new GT1 season, Turner and Mucke were consistently fast in qualifying and bagged second place on the grid in their Aston Martin for the race. Overnight though the pole-sitting Lamborghini received a five-place grid penalty for a flag infringement, which meant that Turner would start the qualifying race from pole position.

Turner got away well at the rolling start and maintained a clear three-second gap back to second place throughout his run.

When the pit window opened he came in to hand over to Mucke but as soon as the German driver left the pits it was clear there was a problem. Unfortunately his left front wheel wasn’t fitted correctly and as soon as Stefan took to the track it began to work loose. That was the end of the race for the No.8 Aston Martin.

This result meant that Mucke would start the main race from the second to last row of the grid.

He had a very busy first lap and managed to hussle his way up to eighth place before the cars passed the pits for the first time.

At the pit stops he handed over to Darren in seventh place, which Turner duly turned into a fifth place finish, which scored the pair’s first ten championship points of the season.

“I’m happy to get a result, especially as we should have been starting that one from the front,” said Turner.

“Stefan had a great opening lap and it was good to be able to get into the points. The pit stop was a little slow but I think everyone had their ups and downs today. I’m happy to be working with Stefan and our new race engineer. The team morale is good and I think we have a good season ahead of us.”