Mercedes AMG takes top 3 positions for 24 Hours of Barcelona

The fifth running of the endurance race near Barcelona required everything from the competitors. Reinhold Renger (GER), Reinhard Kofler (AUT), Sean Johnston (USA), Harald Proczyk and Bernd Schneider (GER) put in the best performance. From eighth place on the grid, the quintet gradually worked its way up with the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 and drove victory home after 24 hours. AMG Customer Sports Pool Driver Bernd Schneider drove the gullwing across the finish line.

A faultless performance allowed Christiaan Frankenhout (NED), Kenneth Heyer (GER), Roland Eggimann, Michael and Chantal Kroll (all SUI) to finish second. Towards the end of the race, the AMG Customer Sports Team was able to significantly reduced the gap to the front-runners and eventually only just missed out on victory. With another Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3, RAM Racing finished third. Jeroen Bleekemolen (NED), Paul White, Tom Onslow-Cole (both GBR) and Thomas Jäger (GER) secured the fifth consecutive 24H Series podium finish for the team.

Team Car Collection Motorsport also sparked a huge surprise at Barcelona. Peter Schmidt, Alexander Mattschull, Johannes Sieger (all GER), Rik Breukers and Renger van der Zande (NED) secured the first-ever pole position for the team, but failed to finish the race. Their team-mates Gustav Edelhoff, Ingo Vogler, Elmar Grimm, Heinz Schmersal and Dr. Johannes Kirchhoff (all GER) finished in 23^rd place in spite of longer repair breaks. The SPS Automotive Performance teams with drivers Valentin Pierburg, Lance-David Arnold, Tim und Alex Müller (all GER) had to retire after some 20 hours.

At the Nürburgring, Black Falcon, another AMG Customer Sports Team had reason to celebrate. With their Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3, Hubert Haupt (GER), Abdulaziz Al Faisal (KSA), Yelmer Buurman (NED) and Adam Christodoulou (GBR) scored the overall win in the ‘6h ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen’ of the VLN Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring. Thus, an SLS AMG GT3 won the season highlight of Europe’s most popular club race series for the fourth consecutive time.