Mercedes-AMG “Very Happy” With Performance of GT4 in Race Debut

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/AMG

The Mercedes-AMG GT4 has completed a successful competition debut, with the Uwe Alzen Automotive-run entry finishing inside the top-20 overall in Saturday’s rain-soaked VLN round at the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

Mercedes-AMG test and development driver Thomas Jaeger, Fabian Hamprecht and Mike Stursberg drove the twin-turbo-powered V8 car to a 16th place overall finish, first in the SPX class, in the six-hour race that was impacted by mixed weather conditions.

The German manufacturer’s second GT4 entry, run by Black Falcon, retired with one hour to go due to “minor difficulties.”

“We are very happy with the performance of the Mercedes-AMG GT4 at this point in the test phase,” said Head of Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing Stefan Wendl.

“[No.] 54 was able to drive a trouble-free race and already showed a promising reliability of the car. At the same time, we have still find some points for improvement, of course. We will do everything to make further progress in the next test races.”

Jaeger said thy were able to learn an “incredible lot” with the car, particularly with the conditions faced.

“It was the first test at the Nordschleife in the rain,” he said. “The car has shown a good level of reliability. The drivers dealt with the car very well and were able to post really good lap times in these difficult conditions and they praised our good development work.

“Of course, we will optimize the car further with the insights from today.”

The No. 911 Manthey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Romain Dumas, Kevin Estre and Mathieu Jaminet scored the overall win, leading a 1-2 for the manufacturer, with Falken Motorsports’ entry, driven by former Porsche Juniors Martin Ragginger and Klaus Bachler finishing second.

While on the heels of the car’s race debut, Black Falcon currently has a Mercedes GT4 entered for next weekend’s 24 Hours of Portimao with Saud Al Faisal, Burkard Kaiser, Aurel Schoeller, Fidel Leib and Manuel Metzger listed as drivers.

It would mark the car’s 24-hour race debut, should the car be confirmed for the Creventic race.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John