Enge writes off new Aston Martin
03/08/09 One of the two new Lola-Aston Martin coupes has been all but written off during the first day of testing for the Le Mans 24 Hours.
The 007 Lola-Aston was destroyed by Tomas Enge in the sixth-gear Signes corner at Paul Ricard during official Le Mans Series testing.
The Czech driver had just jumped to the top of the timesheets in the afternoon session when he spun and sustained significant chassis damage on impact with the guardrail.
Asked by autosport if the monocoque had been written-off, Aston Martin Racing team principal George Howard-Chappell said: "It looks pretty grim, but the main thing is that Tomas is okay." Enge confirmed that he had made a mistake at Signes.
"I went on the curb on the exit, the car bottomed out and I spun," he said.
"If you spin at when you are traveling at such a high speed, you might need even more run-off than this track has to offer."