The Gulf–sponsored 007 Aston Martin Racing LMP1 car writes itself into the history books by winning Drivers’ and Teams’ championships in 2009 Le Mans Series

LMS CHAMPIONS 2009!!
More than sixty Gulf guests and staff attended Silverstone's Autosport 1000kms, amongst them Gulf Oil Vice President International, Alain Dujean. "Gulf has again this year witnessed a superb result from our partnership with Aston Martin Racing. Last year we had the victory in the GT1 class at the Le Mans 24 Hours and, this year, the first for Gulf and AMR in the top, LMP1 category, has again finished with success. Our congratulations go to David Richards and all at AMR for this truly fantastic achievement, on what I know is an especially historic occasion, as it is the 50th anniversary of Aston Martin's World Sportscar Championship. Now we have a championship to celebrate together and we look forward very much to continuing our partnership in 2010."


007 , driven by Stefan Mücke (D), Jan Charouz (CZ) and Thomas Enge (CZ), needed only to finish in the top five in LMP1 to clinch the LMP1 titles, no matter where its rival for the series from Pescarolo finished. In the event, the Pescarolo suffered gearbox problems in the third hour, which dropped it out of contention for a good finish. 007 finished third, only a minute behind the race-winning Oreca and in doing so, not only took the Teams' and Drivers' titles but continued its remarkable record of finishing on the podium at every round of the 2009 LMS.
The race was, however, no easy matter as the large number of cars taking part - together with the fact that LMS titles were being decided across the four categories - often meant that slower cars were too involved in their own battles to notice the faster LMP1 cars approaching. This created overtaking problems and the drivers often had to take rapid action to avoid being caught-up in someone else's incident.



The 009 AMR car of Harold Primat (CH) and Darren Turner (GB) ran close to 007 throughout the race, swapping places with its sister Gulf-liveried car right through to final pit stop. It finished a strong fourth and, in doing so, itself secured fourth place in the 2009 Le Mans Series LMP1 category.
The third AMR entry - the 008 Gulf-liveried car - crewed by Miguel Ramos (P), Stuart Hall (GB) and Chris Buncombe (GB) came home 9th in LMP1.
"Today marks another major chapter in Gulf's long and successful motorsport history," enthused Gulf Oil International Brand and Marketing manager, Sam Cork. "Aston Martin Racing has delivered a superb day out for all of our Gulf guests and has also given our Gulf distributors, the world over, something to celebrate as well as a fantastic platform from which to strengthen brand awareness."