- AKKODIS ASP Team’s Timur Boguslavskiy, Jules Gounon and Raffaele Marciello claim victory and Endurance Cup points’ lead
- Second place for Maro Engel, Fabian Schiller and Luca Stolz of Mercedes-AMG Team AlManar
- Winward Racing victorious in Gold Cup, Haupt Racing Team secures another podium result in Bronze Cup
An outstanding result in the fourth Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup race weekend at the Nürburgring as Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing scores a 1-2. The Mercedes-AMG customer sport teams had already achieved such a feat in the 1,000-kilometre race at Le Castellet (FRA) at the beginning of June. This time, once again, the #88 Mercedes-AMG GT3 run by the AKKODIS ASP Team secured victory. Thanks to an impressive achievement by Timur Boguslavskiy (FIA), Jules Gounon (AND) and Raffaele Marciello (SUI) in the rainy qualifying on Sunday morning, the trio started from pole position. An excellent opening stint by Raffaele Marciello paved the way for the second season win of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 with starting number 88. Marciello was able to hold on to his leading position right from the start and was then able to pull clear from the opposition until handing the car to Boguslavskiy. Teammate Gounon then safely brought victory home. In the closing stages of the race, he had the upper hand over Luca Stolz (GER). Together with his teammates Maro Engel and Fabian Schiller (both GER), Stolz secured second place with the #777 Mercedes-AMG GT3 under the Mercedes-AMG Team AlManar entry. Previously, the team, the car of which was run by the GetSpeed team, worked its way up through the field by virtue of a clever strategy with an early first pit stop and very fast lap times. At the finish line, the two cars were 1.9 seconds apart. With their victory on Sunday, Boguslavski, Gounon and Marciello also moved up into the Endurance Cup points’ lead. In the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup and overall standings, Boguslavskiy and Marciello are in first place as well.
Gold Cup class success at the Nürburgring
A Mercedes-AMG GT3 also ended up on top of the podium in the Gold Cup at the Nürburgring. Miklas Born (SUI), David Schumacher and Marius Zug (both GER) dominated proceedings in their class and ended up sixth overall with the #157 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3. In the Bronze Cup, Haupt Racing Team secured a top 3 finish. Sébastien Baud (FRA), Hubert Haupt (GER) and Arjun Maini (IND) brought the #79 Mercedes-AMG GT3 home in third place in their class.
“Congratulations and many thanks to all the Mercedes-AMG customer sport teams for this really outstanding overall result. The 1-2 and the achievements in the various classes are the deserved reward for the hard work week after week. The impressive result here at the Nürburgring once again shows the enormous potential and the huge versatility of the Mercedes-AMG GT3. This result puts us into a positive mood for the remainder of the season that continues next week already, once again here in the Eifel, but then with DTM.”
Stefan Wendl, head of Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing
“This race simply was incredible. The team knows the Mercedes-AMG GT3 inside out and that is probably what made the difference this time. The AKKODIS ASP Team and my teammates simply did everything right today. In this race, the car was one of the best I have driven during my three years with Mercedes-AMG. Thanks to everyone for this great race car!”
Jules Gounon, AKKODIS ASP Team #88
“It was a good race and winning is always a great feeling. Today, once again, the Mercedes-AMG GT3 was very good to drive. The entire team did a great job. Being on the top step of the podium once more and scoring valuable points for the championship is nice. There, we are now in the lead, and I hope that we are able to hold on to this position until the finale in Barcelona.”
Raffaele Marciello, AKKODIS ASP Team #88
“We were very fast all weekend. This morning, we had an outstanding qualifying and eventually, we got a good result with second place. At the end, we were really close to AKKODIS ASP. Congratulations for the boys on the victory, they have done a top job. We are happy about our podium finish. We are closer already than back at Paul Ricard and we hope to be able to make another step ahead at Barcelona.”
Luca Stolz, Mercedes-AMG Team AlManar #777
“We had a good start and I was able to make up some positions right away. The pace was there throughout the race. Today, it has shown that with a good qualifying result, which isn’t always easy with so many cars, one can run in the top 10. With sixth place overall and the Gold Cup class win, we can be very happy. I really enjoyed my stint. I like this track configuration and I am looking forward to DTM here at the Nürburgring next weekend. Even though we then race at the short circuit lay-out, most of the corners are identical after all.”
David Schumacher, Winward Racing #157
“It was a difficult race for us today. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to participate in pre-qualifying yesterday and therefore lost a lot of driving time in the dry. As a result, our set-up wasn’t perfect and we were lacking some pace. All in all, however, I am very happy with the next podium result. That keeps us in the race for the championship in our class.”
Arjun Maini, Haupt Racing Team #79
