• Race 1: overall win for #6 Mercedes-AMG Team Toksport WRT, P3 for #88 Mercedes-AMG Team AKKA ASP
• Race 2: overall win for #6 Mercedes-AMG Team Toksport WRT, P2 for #89 AKKA ASP
• End-of-season standings: Engel/Stolz in P2, P3 for Marciello/Boguslavskiy; Baumann/Pierburg in second place of the Pro-Am standings; Pla/Tereschenko third in Silver Cup

Mercedes-AMG Team Toksport WRT has caused quite a stir in the fifth and final round of the season in the Sprint Cup of the GT World Challenge Europe: after a commanding performance with the #6 Mercedes-AMG GT3, Maro Engel and Luca Stolz (both GER) decided both races at Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia in Spain in their favour, scoring their third and fourth race win of the season. The #88 Mercedes-AMG Team AKKA ASP entry and the #89 sister car each secured one podium result. A pair of Pro-Am class wins and a lock-out of the top three in the Silver Cup rounded out the successful race weekend for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport.

In the two qualifying sessions held on the Saturday, the Mercedes-AMG GT3s already proved to be in excellent shape. Maro Engel secured pole position for the second race with the #6 Mercedes-AMG Team Toksport WRT car, his teammate Luca Stolz having just missed out on the best starting grid position for the first race by only 0.073 seconds. Valentin Pierburg (GER) and Dominik Baumann (AUT) ended up as the best-placed Pro-Am team with the #20 SPS automotive performance entry in both sessions. In Silver Cup, Mercedes-AMG Motorsport’s customer teams dominated as well: in the first session, Toksport WRT’s Oscar Tunjo (COL) was fastest in class with the #7 machine while Jim Pla (FRA) managed to post the fastest lap time with the #87 AKKA ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the second session.

Race 1: overall win for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport
Race one at Circuit Ricardo Tormo got off to a turbulent start: there were several collisions in the 27-car field in the first corners at the 4.005 kilometres long circuit already. Among those affected were the #7 Toksport WRT and the #90 Madpanda Motorsport cars. For both entries, the race was already over after only a few minutes. Meanwhile, Timur Boguslavskiy (RUS), the starting driver in the #88 Mercedes-AMG Team AKKA ASP car, made a good start, moving up into P3 right away. After a safety car intervention early in the race, the leader and Luca Stolz, having started from P2 with the #6 Mercedes-AMG Team Toksport WRT car, easily pulled away from their rivals until another yellow bunched up the field once more. As the pit stop window opened around the halfway point of the race, many opponents used this opportunity for an early driver change. Among them was Luca Stolz, who handed the #6 car to Maro Engel after a quick stop, as well as Timur Boguslavskiy, from whom teammate Raffaele Marciello (ITA) took over the #88 car. Once the race-leading car headed into the pits, Engel was able to move ahead of it, taking the lead of the race for the first time with 20 race laps completed. Subsequently, he managed to distance himself farther and farther away from the competitors.

After a total of 36 race laps, Engel crossed the finish line in first place with a commanding margin of almost nine seconds. In the hunting pack, Raffaele Marciello benefited from a spin by an opponent in front of him. After around 50 minutes, he claimed back P3 that had been lost in the mean time and thus also secured a podium finish for his team. Petru Razvan Umbraresco (ROU) and Jules Gounon (FRA) also showed a strong performance with the #89 AKKA ASP car, having moved up from 15^th on the grid to finish sixth overall. In the #87 sister car, Jim Pla and Konstantin Tereschenko (RUS) secured a class podium finish in Silver Cup. Valentin Pierburg and Dominik Baumann did likewise with the SPS automotive performance car with starting number 20 in the Pro-Am classification.

Race 2: a 1-2 for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport
In the second race, four Mercedes-AMG GT3s lined up on the first two rows on the starting grid. Once again, the safety car was deployed as early as lap two after several cars had collided. Unfazed, Maro Engel defended his lead in a commanding way with the #6 car, followed by the two AKKA ASP drivers Jules Gounon (#89) and Jim Pla (#87) in P2 and P3. Later on in the first half of the race, Engel and Gounon were able to slightly pull away from their rivals. Once Engel handed the #6 car to Luca Stolz, Mercedes-AMG Team Toksport WRT benefited from a quick pit stop like it had done in the first race already, enabling Stolz to defend the lead corrected for pit stops. Within a few laps only, he managed to build a margin of several seconds over the second-placed driver. Meanwhile, Petru Razvan Umbrarescu, who had taken over the #89 car from Jules Gounon, was involved in an intense duel with his rival, but was able to hold on to P2 until the end of the race. Luca Stolz extended his lead further and further and eventually drove the second undisputed victory of the day for the #6 Mercedes-AMG Team Toksport WRT car home with a margin of over 15 seconds.

Konstantin Tereschenko (#87 AKKA ASP, P6), Ezequiel Perez Companc (ARG, #90 Madpanda Motorsport, P7) and Oscar Tunjo (#7 Toksport WRT, P8) made it a lock-out of the top three for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport in Silver Cup. Dominik Baumann drove the #20 SPS automotive performance car to the Pro-Am class victory.

Maro Engel and Luca Stolz conclude the Sprint Cup season in the GT World Challenge Europe in an excellent second place, followed by third-placed Timur Boguslavsiy and Raffaele Marciello. In the Pro-Am standings, Dominik Baumann and Valentin Pierburg also secure second place while Jim Pla and Konstantin Tereschenko end up in third place of the end-of-season Silver Cup standings.

Maro Engel, #6 Mercedes-AMG Toksport WRT: “A perfect day and a perfect end of the season! The entire team has done an outstanding job and the same can be said for my teammate Luca. Many thanks to the team, we are really delighted with the two wins.”

Luca Stolz, #6 Mercedes-AMG Team Toksport WRT: “Being on the podium again is a good feeling, and twice on one day on top of that! The team has deserved it, everybody has been putting in a maximum effort throughout the weekend. This feels great!”

Raffaele Marciello, #88 Mercedes-AMG Team AKKA ASP: “It was a difficult weekend and of course, our expectations were different. The speed was there, but unfortunately, we had a technical problem in second qualifying that cost us a better starting grid position. Nevertheless, we are happy with the podium finish in the first race, of course.”

Stefan Wendl, head of Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing: “A double success, two further podium results and multiple class wins: we could hardly have concluded the Sprint Cup season in the GT World Challenge Europe in a more impressive way. Once again, we have shown that our Mercedes-AMG GT3 is victorious and can be a title contender. In the Sprint Cup, it just wasn’t quite enough for the championship. Nevertheless, sincere congratulations to our Customer Racing Teams and their drivers who have shown really great achievements in this hard-fought championship.”