• AKKODIS ASP Team #88 secures overall win after dramatic final stage
• Mercedes-AMG Team AlManar concludes six-hour race in second place
• Further successes for the customer sport teams in the Gold and Bronze classes

The Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing Teams have collected the first victory in the second round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cups powered by AWS season. The eleven Mercedes- AMG GT3s already presented themselves in an impressive way in the three-part qualifying on Saturday morning: the #88 car (AKKODIS ASP Team) qualified on pole position, the #777 entry (Mercedes-AMG Team AlManar) for second place on the grid. In the course of the Circuit Paul Ricard 1000 Km, both cars remained in the frontrunning group. In the final stages, it was Raffaele Marciello (SUI) who made the difference as he took the lead with the #88 Mercedes-AMG GT3 following two successful overtaking manoeuvres. For the defending champion and his teammates Timur Boguslavskiy (FIA) and Jules Gounon (AND), this resulted into the first overall win of the season after 183 laps. Maro Engel, Fabian Schiller and Luca Stolz (all GER) of Mercedes- AMG Team AlManar ended up in second place, around ten seconds in arrears.

The six-hour race at Circuit Paul Ricard in the south of France was also a successful affair in the various classes: in spite of a five-second penalty during the race, Sébastien Baud (FRA), Hubert Haupt (GER) and Arjun Maini (IND) drove the #79 Haupt Racing Team Mercedes-AMG GT3 to victory in the Bronze category. The #157 Winward Racing car with Miklas Born (SUI), David Schumacher and Marius Zug (both GER) behind the wheel finished in tenth place and secured second position in the Gold Cup. Marius Zug made the decisive move with only ten minutes remaining. The next round on the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup calendar is the legendary CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, taking place from 27th June till 2nd July.

“Of course, I am highly satisfied with this result. That was an outstanding team performance. We made the most of our promising starting position after qualifying and absolutely deserved this double victory with a flawless performance. I am very pleased that our customer teams also made it onto the podium in the gold and bronze rankings with their fighting efforts. This good achievement makes us confident for the upcoming events in the GT World Challenge Endurance Cup, especially looking at the Spa 24-hour race in four weeks.”
Stefan Wendl, head of Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing

“I am really happy with my double stint at the end. During my first stint, I was able to make up a few places and that was the key to victory today. It has been a long time since my last win here at Circuit Paul Ricard. All in all, therefore, it was a very beautiful night.”
Raffaele Marciello, AKKODIS ASP Team #88

“It was a great race for us. I was able to defend the lead at the start. After that, we lost a bit of time because of the traffic with 57 cars on track. However, we worked our way back up again in a good way and even won in the end. Normally, this isn’t our best track. After the difficult weekend at Monza, however, this was a great comeback. I am happy for Mercedes-AMG and for my team with this result.”
Jules Gounon, AKKODIS ASP Team #88

“I had a lot of fun out there today. Fighting with Raffaele on track was a joy. Eventually, his team has done a slightly better job today. Still, we had a good pace, we were doing well. At Monza, we already saw the potential of the Mercedes-AMG GT3, after all. We will definitely still have a lot of fun this season. Now, first of all, our focus is on Spa.”
Luca Stolz, Mercedes-AMG Team AlManar #777

“The race is not over until the chequered flag is waved, as we have seen again today. For us, the class win is a dream result. It was a top-notch performance by the entire team, nobody made a mistake. Now, we have to make sure that we deliver a good performance at Spa, similar to what we have done here, and make it to the finish in the race.”
Hubert Haupt, Haupt Racing Team #79

“Unfortunately, we lost some time during the first two stints. The darker it got, the faster we were. Marius has done a super job and even secured second place in class for us in the end. Had the race been two laps longer, perhaps victory would have been possible as well. All in all, however, we can be very happy with tenth place overall and second place in class.”
David Schumacher, Winward Racing #157

See full results here.