Christophe D'Ansembourg exiting the pit lane, in his Lola Aston DBR1-2, during the qualification session of the Masters Endurance Legends
Following initial success in 2008 with the Lola B60/08 and Aston Martin V12, AMR made the decision to move fully into the top flight LMP1 class and challenge for an overall win at Le Mans. The car to do this was the Lola-Aston Martin B09/60 (Aston Martin LMP1 for short), an evolution of the previous B08/60 and known internally as the DBR1-2. It was still built by Lola and co-developed by AMR/Prodrive and also involved the parts suppliers Michelin, Koni and BBS. AMR continued to receive sponsorship from Gulf Oil and the car carried the famous blue and orange livery. As in the 2008 car, the Lola-Aston Martin used the same V12 from the DBR9 GT1 car, but the standard Lola gearbox was replaced by a more compact Xtrac 6-speed with paddle-shift. An unusual feature to the car was the rearward brake cooling, which fed air to the brakes through two fans, and eliminates brake ducts on the body. The styling of the Aston Martin LMP1 was not only the product of the wind tunnel but Director of Design, Marek Reichman gave the car the look of an Aston. Two B09/60s (007 and 009) competed in the full LMS season in including the 24 hour race where they were joined by a third car, 008 entered under the AMR Eastern Europe banner for Charouz Racing Systems. The number 007 car won the Le Mans Series overall, and the number 009 finished fourth. At Le Mans, 008 of Jan Charouz, Tomáš Enge and Stefan Mücke finished fourth behind the factory entries of Peugeot and Audi, as well as being the highest finishing petrol-fuelled car. In 2010, AMR competed at the 2010 12 Hours of Sebring the first appearance of the LMP1 car in the US finishing the race in 3rd position, 3 laps behind the 2 winning Peugeots. Three cars were again entered in the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans, 007 and 009 by AMR and 008 by the French team Signature-Plus. Both the 008 and 009 cars suffered from problems retired, leaving only the 007 to finish 6th overall after 365 laps, less than it did in 2009. It was the third highest petrol
Size: 3033px × 3376px
Location: Silverstone Circuit, Towcester, Northamptonshire, NN12 8TN
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 24, 670, 900, 2009, 2022, 6000cc, air, aston, b09/60), blue, car, christophe, circuit, classic, cockpit, dansembourg, dbr1-2, drive, endurance, front, headlights, hours, hp, kg, lane, le, legends, lmp-1, lola, lola-aston, mans, mans., martin, masters, orange, pit, prototype, qualification, race, racing, rear, scoop, session, silverstone, streamline, towcester, v12, view, wheel, wing
