Tales from the paddock – Toto Wolff : “ The battle at the top is more exciting than ever before ”
Summer break for Formula 1 and DTM : Toto Wolff sums up the season so far and looks ahead to the second half of the campaign
News snippets
Hungarian GP – Stat-Attack : The Hungaroring has not been a particular favourite of the team in recent years , but on the final race weekend before the summer break , they rose to the challenge and secured the eleventh pole position ( new record for an engine manufacturer on this track ) and the eleventh victory ( more than any other engine manufacturer ) in Hungary for the brand with the three-pointed star . Lewis also further polished his crown as ‘ King of Budapest ’. His 77th Formula 1 pole position was also his sixth at the Hungaroring , a record that is surpassed only by Michael Schumacher who has seven poles to his credit in Hungary . Lewis and Sebastian Vettel are now on level pegging in terms of pole positions this season with five each . Lewis ’ s 67th Grand Prix victory on Sunday puts him well in the clear in two categories – most wins in Hungary ( six ) and most wins this season ( five ). All of this was accomplished on the track where he clinched his first Grand Prix victory with the team in 2013 .
Strong at Spa : In the 70th running of the Total 24 Hours of Spa , the teams fielding Mercedes-AMG GT3s produced a strong overall performance . A record contingent of 13 vehicles built at Affalterbach competed in the legendary endurance classic last weekend , and four of them finished in the Top 12 .
The best result was secured by the number 4 car entered by Mercedes-AMG Team BLACK FALCON and driven by Yelmer Buurman ( NED ), Maro Engel ( GER ) and Luca Stolz ( GER ). The GT3 looked to be on course for a podium until four hours before the end of the race . However , an unfortunately timed pit stop shortly before a full-course yellow dropped the driver trio behind the Top Three .
Taking the chequered flag in sixth place was the number 88 car entered by Mercedes-AMG Team AKKA ASP and driven by Daniel Juncadella ( ESP ), Raffaele Marciello ( ITA ) and Tristan Vautier ( FRA ). Eleventh place went to the number 43 car of Mercedes-AMG team STRAKKA Racing with Maximilian Buhk ( GER ), Maximilian Götz ( GER ) and Alvaro Parente ( POR ) sharing the cockpit , closely followed by the number 84 Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-FILTER car of Edoardo Mortara ( ITA ), Gary Paffett ( GBR ) and Renger van der Zande ( NED ) in twelfth place .
Outside the general classification , the Customer Racing teams achieved three podium finishes : the number 42 of STRAKKA Racing led the Pro-AM class for much of the time , but the quartet of Chris Buncombe ( GBR ), David Fumanelli ( ITA ), Nick Leventis ( GBR ) and Lewis Williamson ( GBR ) ultimately had to settle for the runner-up spot . Third place on the Pro- AM podium went to the number 175 of SunEnergy1 Team HTP Motorsport driven by Kenny Habul ( AUS ), Thomas Jäger ( GER ), Martin Konrad ( AUT ) and Bernd Schneider ( GER ). In the Silver Cup , the number 6 BLACK FALCON Mercedes- AMG GT3 driven by Abdulaziz Al Faisal ( KSA ), Hubert Haupt ( GER ), Manuel Metzger ( GER ) and Gabriele Piana ( ITA ) made a valiant charge through the field from last on the grid to secure P2 in their class .
These creditable results have allowed Mercedes-AMG to close the gap in the Intercontinental GT Challenge manufacturers ’ championship at this halfway point in the season . They are now in P2 . The Endurance Cup of the Blancpain GT Series is led by four Mercedes-AMG drivers – Raffaele Marciello , Maro Engel , Luca Stolz and Yelmer Buurman .
Mercedes-AMG top manufacturer at Spa : The consistent performance across the board by the ten Mercedes-AMG cars that actually finished the race – seven of them in the
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