Turner's title bid is foiled in final race

They fought back from a mid-race incident that took away their chances of victory in the FIA World Endurance Championship season finale.

Qualifying for the Bahrain round of the WEC ran like clockwork for the #97 crew on Friday evening. Turner set the fastest time during the opening laps and then Adam matched it exactly during his run, sealing pole position for the British duo.

Turner was at the wheel of the Aston Martin for the start of the six-hour race and despite a good getaway he was jumped by the #51 Ferrari and later the #95 Aston Martin.

He set off after the pair and after passing Nicki Thiim in the #95 car he then made a great move on Gianmaria Bruni’s Ferrari to take the lead of the race.

From that point on, Turner and Adam didn’t look back and started to build up a very comfortable buffer back to the competition.

Right on the halfway mark of the race Turner had just handed the car over to Adam when a wheel came off the #97 Aston Martin V8 Vantage, forcing Adam to limp back to the pits.

Turner said: “Unfortunately as Jonny headed out for the his second run we lost a wheel. Thankfully he could get back to the pits so the team could assess the problem, fix it and send him back out, only losing around three minutes.”

The team will look into the cause of the incident back at Aston Martin Racing HQ in Banbury but for Turner and Adam that was the end of their fight for victory in Bahrain.

Turner added: “That was that but we got back out there and kept on pushing. We managed to claw our way back up to fifth but ultimately it’s a disappointing result for us as we had the pace to win it.

“It would have been a great way to end the season. On a more positive note, the #95 guys took the drivers and team championships so that was a fantastic way for Aston Martin Racing to finish the year.”