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Motorsport

What caused Marco Sorensen’s heavy WEC Prologue crash for Aston Martin?

Marco Sorensen Aston Martin Aston (Organization) WEC Prologue (Event) Harry Tincknell Tom Gamble Hypercar Imola (Geopolitical Entity)

Marco Sorensen says tyre warm-up issues led to his dramatic crash during Tuesday’s Prologue test for the 2026 World Endurance Championship at Imola.

The factory Aston Martin driver was on an outlap with around 90 minutes remaining in the morning session when he went off-track at Tamburello and smashed heavily into the wall.

Although the Dane climbed out of the car unaided and was cleared of injuries after a visit to the medical centre, the #009 Valkyrie he shared with Alex Riberas suffered significant damage in the incident.

It left the factory Heart of Racing team with just one car for the remainder of the Prologue, in which it finished 12th among the 17 Hypercar entries.

Aston Martin and HoR eventually elected to change the chassis on the #009, with the rebuild completed on Thursday morning ahead of Friday’s opening practice session.

Explaining the incident, Le Mans 24 Hours class winner Sorensen joked that he “ran out of talent”, before pointing to tyre warm-up as a wider issue across the grid.

“It's obviously annoying that it happened, but it's kind of one of these simple ones,” he told Motorsport.com. “One of the performance areas that we need to work on as a whole team is to get quicker on the outlaps, warm up the tyres and find ways that we can push - and I basically overdid it.

“So it's one of these outlap things, where you try to predict what's going to happen, but when you have so much horsepower and the tyres are not warm, it's very unpredictable.

“The whole paddock will say the same thing about tyre warm-up and everything. It is just difficult and we all know that.

“I think it's caught us all out at some point where you may be spinning or you're going to gravel or whatever. I think the whole paddock has been there on the new tyres, if I'm honest.

“We're a little bit outside of the window. So it was towards the colder side for the mediums. We obviously wanted to try to push to have the temperature up on the mediums to see if we could make them work.

“We never really got to that point because then I ran out of talent [laughs]. But it is kind of what happens.”

#009 Aston Martin Thor Team Aston Martin Valkyrie: Marco Sorensen, Roman De Angelis (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

Michelin has introduced new tyre compounds for both the Hypercar and IMSA Sports Championship’s GTP class this year, incorporating 50% renewable and sustainable materials.

While Sorensen sampled the new 2026-spec tyres during the Daytona 24 Hours in January, teams and drivers still have limited knowledge about their behaviour.

However, the 35-year-old refused to point fingers elsewhere, having already taken full responsibility for the shunt.

“It will always be on the driver,” he said. “If we are going to start blaming people for… I would probably not crash if I went slower, but that's always easy to say.

“I wouldn't say anything. They did change the kerbs this year, where they kind of moved some painting up on the kerb, which is a bit strange. But again, it's the same for everyone. So I don't really see any need to try to blame anyone.”

The #009 Aston had completed 53 laps prior to Sorensen's crash at Tamburello, with his earlier best of 1m33.710s leaving it last in the final Prologue standings.

Sorensen, a three-time GT champion with Aston Martin and a Le Mans class winner in 2022, is confident his experience will help him bounce back from the crash.

Asked whether it would take him a few outlaps to find confidence again, he said: “100%. The good thing is that I'm fairly experienced by now. I've raced cars for many years. So it shouldn't harm the confidence too much.”

“No reason” Aston Martin can’t challenge at the front

#007 Aston Martin Thor Team Aston Martin Valkyrie: Harry Tincknell, Tom Gamble (Photo by: FIA WEC / DPPI)

Aston Martin is entering the second year of its Hypercar programme, having stepped up to the WEC’s top class in 2025 with the V12-powered Valkyrie.

After running reliably on its Le Mans debut in June, the British manufacturer emerged as a much stronger contender in the second half of 2025, challenging for podiums at both Fuji and Bahrain. It also finished second behind the winning Porsche in IMSA’s season-ending Petit Le Mans.

Tom Gamble, who shares the #007 Aston with Harry Tincknell, said the team can build on that progress and fight at the front this year.

“For this year, it's definitely about trying to consistently be scoring points with both cars and hopefully getting on the podium and maybe even chasing some wins,” he said.

“We are a few years behind our competitors, so it's not going to be an easy task, and the championships usually get more competitive every season, so it's a bit easier said than done, but I don't see any reason why we can't be at the front, challenging.

“The team has put in a lot of hard work over winter. Last year, it was about trying to find the big gains, whereas this year, it's the small little things that are really going to make the difference to us now. The mechanics shaving half a second or a second off a pit stop is going to make probably a difference to our race.

“We have to be on our A game now as well to try and get the best out of the car, and I think we should certainly be challenging for some podiums.”