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TALES FROM THE PADDOCK: FROM BATHURST TO NOGARO AND ON TO ROME

Roman debut: Six weeks on from the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season opener, the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team is heading to #rome. Next weekend (10/11 April), rounds three and four of the all-electric #racing series will be contested on a street circuit in the heart of the Italian capital. Although this will be the first competitive outing in #rome for the Mercedes works team, Stoffel Vandoorne has fond memories of the Circuito Cittadino dell’EUR where he achieved his first podium finish in Formula E with a P3 in Season 5. The 2021 #rome E-Prix will be the third to be hosted by the city, but a different track layout will be used this time. The previous two races in 2017 and 2018 were won by Sam Bird (DS) and Mitch Evans (Jaguar). At 3,380 metres, the newly configured track is the second longest in the annals of the race series and the longest this season.

Victory at Bathurst consolidates GT World Challenge lead: Mercedes-AMG defended first place in the GT World Challenge manufacturers’ standings with a race win in the #gtworldchallengeaustralia #event at the Mount Panorama Circuit. Prince Jefri Ibrahim (MAS) and Shane van Gisbergen (NZL) in the number 888 Mercedes-AMG GT3 fielded by Triple Eight Race Engineering secured victory in the first of the two one-hour races at Bathurst on Saturday and then followed up with a P2 on Sunday. After a successful start to the worldwide GT series with strong results in the GT World Challenge America, Mercedes-AMG remains well on course to retain the title it won last year. In each of the previous two years, the performance and sports car brand from Affalterbach claimed the title in the global manufacturers’ championship, which is decided on the basis of the combined results from the individual series in America, Asia, Europe and – since this year – Australia. In the GT Trophy classification, two wins by Mark Griffith (AUS) in the number 19 Griffith Corporation Mercedes-AMG GT4 and a P3 for Nick Kelly (AUS) in the number 99 Mercedes-AMG GT3 rounded out a successful weekend at Mount Panorama.

Class victory in #gt4france curtain-raiser: AKKA ASP team got the 2021 campaign in the French GT #racing series off to a highly satisfactory start with a class victory. The season opener was contested by no fewer than eleven Mercedes-AMG GT4s entered by four Customer #racing teams. In the first of the two one-hour races at #nogaro, Timothé Buret and Paul Evrard (both FRA) in the number 88 Mercedes-AMG GT4 took second place overall, a result that was enough for first place in the Silver Cup. In the second race, the duo made another podium appearance after finishing fifth overall and third in the Silver category. The best-placed Mercedes-AMG GT4 in this race was the number 87 sister car driven by Jean-Luc Beaubelique and Jim Pla (both FRA), which finished fourth overall and second in the Pro-Am class. All in all, it was a highly productive race weekend for the Mercedes-AMG Customer #racing teams at the Circuit Paul Armagnac, with a grand total of eight Top Ten finishes in the general classification.

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#F1Debrief: After the spectacular opening race in Bahrain, there was plenty to talk about in the first F1 debrief of the 2021 season. Our Technical Director James Allison reveals all about fiercely contested battles for position, pit stop problems, difficult strategy decisions and much more besides in this video.

Watch video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpebKhQLj4s