GruppeM Mercedes in Control at Halfway

Photo: Mercedes-AMG

The No. 888 GruppeM Mercedes-AMG GT3 is in control of the Suzuka 10 Hours at the halfway point.

Raffaele Marciello held a five-second lead over the No. 43 Strakka Racing Mercedes of Alvaro Parente prior to a scheduled round of pit stops just prior to the five-hour mark.

Action resumed early in the fourth hour following an accident between the No. 07 M-Sport Bentley Continental GT3 and Come Ledogar’s No. 58 Garage 59 McLaren 650S GT3 that ended in retirement for the McLaren.

Stewards gave incident responsibility to Ledogar, in the form of a drive-through penalty.

While initially triggering a Full Course Yellow, a safety car was deployed and bunched the field up prior to the restart.

The No. 07 Bentley of Steven Kane ran third prior to the stops, with Mikael Grenier leading Pro-Am in the No. 175 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes in fourth and the sister No. 08 Bentley in fifth.

The best-placed Audi R8 LMS runs in seventh, with Dries Vanthoor at the wheel of the No. 06 Audi Sport-backed WRT entry.

A suspected fuel pressure issue halted KCMG’s bid for victory, with Edoardo Liberati stopping on track in the fourth hour after a top-five run.

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