Victory went to Maro Engel (GER), Bernd Schneider (GER), Adam Christodoulou (GBR) and Manuel Metzger (GER) with the #4 entry of the AMG-Team BLACK FALCON. The AMG-Team HTP Motorsport, HARIBO Racing Team-AMG, the second AMG-Team BLACK FALCON car and the MANN-FILTER Team ZAKSPEED follow in second, third, fourth and sixth place respectively. The Mercedes-AMG GT3 had a perfect debut in the Nürburgring 24-hour race. The teams that ran the new customer sports car for the first time in the classic endurance race in the Eifel secured a historic victory including a clean sweep of the podium for the brand and a total of five cars finishing in the top six. In the race, marked by extremely changeable weather conditions, drivers, teams and cars equally shone with a consistent high performance level, huge reliability and good race strategies. Prior to the start of the race, Maro Engel (GER) had already caught the attention by taking the maiden pole position for AMG in the Nürburgring 24-hour race with the #9 car of the AMG-Team BLACK FALCON. Freak weather conditions had their effect on the opening stages of the race on Saturday afternoon as a hail storm caused an interruption of the race for several hours. After the restart, AMG Performance Teams quickly established themselves in the group of the front-runners in the field that included over 150 cars. When the night set in and the track dried out more and more, the Mercedes-AMG GT3 teams had a quintuple lead for the first time. The remainder of the race saw thrilling duels and numerous lead changes. On Sunday morning, a quadruple lead of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 cars had been established, in which the race leader, the HARIBO Racing Team-AMG’s #88 car, was able to pull a slight gap. A yellow-flag infringement and the subsequent time penalty then prevented a possible win for Maximilian Götz (GER), Lance David Arnold (GER), Uwe Alzen (GER) and Jan Seyffarth (GER). In the thrilling finale, the #29 car with Christian Hohenadel (GER), Marco Seefried (GER), Christian Vietoris (GER) and Renger van der Zande (NED) and the #4 entry with Bernd Schneider (GER), Adam Christodoulou (GBR), Manuel Metzger (GER) and Maro Engel (GER) alternated in the lead. The final two laps turned out to be the exciting highlight: after a ‘splash and dash’ fuel stop just a few minutes before the duration of 24 hours was completed, final driver Hohenadel initially held on to a tiny lead from Engel. With a last-gasp overtaking move, Engel then took the lead and went on to drive victory for the AMG-Team BLACK FALCON home after 134 laps. With a gap of 5.697 seconds, the closest finish in history of the 24-hour race, Hohenadel followed to finish second for the AMG-Team HTP Motorsport. One lap down, Uwe Alzen drove the #88 HARIBO Racing Team-AMG car to third place. Behind the teams on the podium, Yelmer Buurman (NED) secured fourth place for the AMG-Team BLACK FALCON #9 car and his team-mates Hubert Haupt (GER), Dirk Müller (GER) and double starter Maro Engel. The MANN-FILTER Team ZAKSPEED showed impressive progress: following problems in the first half of the race, Sebastian Asch (GER), Kenneth Heyer (GER), Daniel Keilwitz (GER) and Luca Ludwig (GER) fought their way back into the group of the front-runners. Final driver Sebastian Asch eventually brought the #75 Mercedes-AMG G3 home in sixth place, three laps down. Thus, five Mercedes-AMG GT3 finished in the top six of this year’s 24-hour race. The AMG-Team HTP Motorsport’s #30 car didn’t make it to the finish: Dominik Baumann (AUT), Maximilian Buhk (GER), Thomas Jäger (GER) and Stefan Mücke (GER) retired following an accident during the night. The #8 HARIBO Racing Team-AMG entry (Maximilian Götz, Lance David Arnold, Uwe Alzen, Jan Seyffarth) also became involved in a collision and was then withdrawn by the team. The #14 BLACK FALCON Customer Sports car with Abdulaziz Al Faisal (KSA), Indy Dontje (NED), Rob Huff (GBR) and Gerwin Schuring (NED) retired after an accident in the morning. All drivers escaped unscathed. |
