GT1 – Mercedes does the double at Portimao

If Marc Basseng and Markus Winkelhock won the qualifying race at Portimao, it is the second Mercedes SLS AMG from All-Inkl.com Münnich Motorsport which won today with the victory of Nicky Pastorelli and Thomas Jäger ahead of the SLS n°38 which started from pole. The cars bearing the star performed well in the heat of the Portuguese circuit. “I think the key to this result was the consistent performance of the car because the Mercedes are not aggressive with the tires and we could set consistent times”, explains the German, delighted to offer his team the first victory of the season in the Championship race. “The tires seemed to be less effective with the other cars. Nicky (Pastorelli) did a fantastic job after the pit stop and it's a wonderful result for the team who scored a lot of points with this first Championship race victory. »

Hexis Racing takes the podium with third place for Frédéric Makowiecki and Stef Dusseldorp at the wheel of the McLaren MP4-12C n°1. Darryl O'Young and Peter Kox took fourth place with the #600 Reiter Engineering Lamborghini Gallardo LP25, which took the lead over the #4 Vita18One BMW Z4 driven by Yelmer Buurman and Michael Bartels, the last winners in Slovakia , in the final moments of the ordeal. The second Hexis Racing McLaren of Grégoire Demoustier and Alvaro Parente did not see the finish of the race, retiring after 26 covered laps.

Discover the report from the FIA ​​GT1 at Portimao in the next issue of AUTOhebdo, available from Tuesday in digital version for iPad, PC and Mac, and from Wednesday on newsstands.