GruppeM Racing wins the Suzuka 10h

La Mercedes-AMG GT3 n°888 from GruppeM Racing won the 10 Hours of Suzuka (Japan) with the Marciello-Engel-Vautier crew victorious by more than half a minute. Raffaele Marciello and Tristan Vautier take control of the Championship while Mercedes surpasses Audi among the Manufacturers by taking advantage of the double offered by Strakka Racing with the No. 43 of Williamson-Götz-Parente.

The No. 3 Mercedes-AMG GT888 had a trouble-free race, with Tristan Vautier taking control of the event in the second hour, taking advantage of a drive-through inflicted on the Ferrari 488 GT3 No. 28 from HubAuto Racing of Foster-Perel-Yoshida started on pole for having regained its position in the formation lap when it had stalled on the grid.

The podium was completed by the No. 8 Absolute Racing Audi R6 LMS driven by Christopher Haase, Markus Winkelhock and Kelvin van der Linde. Team WRT with its Audi n°66 driven by D. Vanthoor-Vervisch-Mies and Team Goodsmile with Taniguchi-Kataoka-Kobayashi completed the Top 5, the latter allowing Mercedes to have a third chassis in the first 5 places. The No. 3 Bentley Continental GT8 of Soulet-Soucek-Abril finished in 6th place.

The success was total for Mercedes since the star-studded GT3 of Habul-Stolz-Grenier in the colors of SunEnergy1 Racing won in the Pro-Am Cup category.

Discover the report of the Suzuka 10h in issue 2180 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.