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 This is what happened: Weekend results and facts News from the Mercedes-AMG Motorsport teams Four questions for Toto Wolff Social media news: What’s new online? This is what happened: Results and facts Formula 1: Lewis Hamilton records his fifth win of the season in the Hungarian Grand Prix 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 Top 20 –
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