GruppeM's Mercedes dominantly wins the inaugural Suzuka 10 Hours

Raffaele Marciello, Maro Engel and Tristan Vautier are the winners of the inaugural Suzuka 10 Hours race at Suzuka Circuit, a part of the Intercontinental GT Challenge.

The trio in the #888 Mercedes-AMG GT3 dominantly won the race after leading for 222 of 276 laps. They crossed the finish line with 31.635 seconds advantage ahead of the #43 Mercedes of Strakka Racing, driven by Lewis Williamson, Alvaro Parente and Maxi Gotz. The #6 crew of the Audi Sport Team Absolute Racing finished in the third place. The drivers of the #6 Audi R8 LMS were Markus Winkelhock, Christopher Haase and Kelvin van der Linde.

Suzuka 10 Hours podium

The best Pro-Am crew was SunEnergy1 Racing’s in the #75 Mercedes-AMG GT3, finishing in the tenth place overall. The drivers of the #75 Mercedes were Kenny Habul, Mikael Grenier and Luca Stolz. Thirty-five crews started the race, 29 were classifed in the official results.

The 1-2 victory of Mercedes gave the German brand a lead in the Intercontinental GT Challenge for manufacturers in front of Audi, with one more race scheduled in October at Laguna Seca. Among the drivers, Tristan Vautier and Raffaele Marciello are the leaders, taking the lead from Robin Frijns who missed the race due to commitments in the DTM.