BANBURY’S Aston Martin Racing team made a stunning start to the FIA GT1 World Championship at Abu Dhabi – taking victory and providing four of the top-six finishers.

Driving a Hexis AMR DB9, Stef Dusseldorp and Clivio Piccione held off a late charge by the JR Motorsport Nissan GT-R of Peter Dumbreck and Richard Westbrook to claim a maiden victory at the Yas Marina circuit.

Third place went to the All-Inkl Munnich Motorsport Lamborghini of Marc Basseng and Markus Winkelhock.

They had to fight hard in the closing stages, with both Christian Hohenadel and Andrea Piccini’s Hexis AMR and Andrea Piccini and the Young Driver AMR of Darren Turner, from Chacombe, near Banbury, and Stefan Mucke finishing within two seconds.

Alex Müller and Tomas Enge took sixth place in the fourth AMR DB9.

Turner and Mucke had started from pole position, and the Oxfordshire driver maintained a clear three-second gap back to second place throughout his run.

But after he handed over to Mucke, the left front wheel began to work loose.

That meant they had to start the main race from the second to last row of the grid, and so did well to finish fifth.

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

“I think we have a good season ahead of us.”