SPORTSCAR

K-PAX Racing, which has quickly shown its speed in its first laps around the Total 24 Hours of Spa circuit, has momentarily shifted its focus leading into one of the year’s most anticipated races to making repairs on one of its two Bentley Continental GT3 entries. The No. 9, piloted by Álvaro Parente, Andy Soucek and Rodrigo Baptista, will undergo an engine change following pre-qualifying, sidelining the car for Thursday afternoon’s qualifying sessions, as well as the evening practice.

On Thursday morning, action for the Total 24 Hours of Spa got underway with a good performance by Mercedes-AMG. In first free practice, three Mercedes-AMG GT3s ended up in the top ten. Maro Engel (GER) of the #4 Mercedes-AMG Team HRT entry posted the third-fastest time in the GT3 field of 56 cars. In total, ten GT3s from Affalterbach will be participating at the circuit in the Ardennes and will be competing for the outright win as well as success in the Pro-Am and Silver classes in the next three days. Seven teams are running the cars, all of them excellently prepared and highly motivated for the endurance racing classic with their 36 drivers in total. Like in the Nürburgring 24-hour race, the efforts of the Mercedes-AMG Performance teams at Spa-Francorchamps will again benefit the ‘Passion for Good’ initiative by the Laureus Sport for Good foundation.