Tales from the paddock: F1 campaign resumes in the sand dunes of the North Sea coast; DTM Gravel Challenge

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While Mercedes-AMG Customer #racing was celebrating a podium success at the Lausitzring, the #f1 teams and drivers were gearing up for the start of the second half of the season.

• F1 returns after summer break
• Customer #racing news: Mercedes-AMG Performance driver Luca Stolz on the #dtm podium at the Lausitzring
• News snippets: Results and Facts & Social Media News

F1 returns after summer break

After a three-week interruption to the season, the premier class of motorsport makes its return this weekend at Zandvoort. The 2023 Dutch Grand Prix will be the third since this particular fixture returned to the #f1 calendar in 2021, although it will be the 33rd time that the 4.259 km Circuit Zandvoort has hosted the #event. #f1 was first contested at Zandvoort in 1952, but from 1985 until 2021, the race was absent from the schedule.

The 13th race of the season will be held over 72 laps on the second-shortest circuit on the current itinerary. Only the famous street circuit in Monte Carlo is shorter at a distance of 3.337 km, which makes the Monaco Grand Prix correspondingly longer in terms of laps, namely 78.

The most successful driver in the sand dunes of the North Sea coast is Jim Clark (four victories) ahead of Sir Jackie Stewart and Niki Lauda (three each). In both contests since #f1 returned to Circuit Zandvoort, Max Verstappen ran out winner in his home race. The most successful team is Ferrari (eight wins), ahead of Lotus (six) and McLaren (three). Mercedes has so far celebrated victory only once at Zandvoort, namely in 1955 with the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio at the wheel.

The track record is held by Max Verstappen with a time of 1:08.885 clocked in the 2021 season, while the fastest race lap is 1:11.097, also set in 2021 but by Lewis Hamilton.

Customer #racing news: Mercedes-AMG Performance driver Luca Stolz on #dtm podium at the Lausitzring

The fifth #event of the 2023 #dtm season at the Lausitzring produced yet another Top Three finish by a Mercedes-AMG Performance driver, this time Luca Stolz (GER) who took third place in Sunday's race. The 28-year-old in the number 4 Mercedes-AMG GT3 benefited from shrewd strategy decision by Mercedes-AMG Team HRT. He was instructed to come in for a tyre change as soon as the mandatory pit stop window opened. He then proceeded to quickly bring the fresh tyres up to temperature, which enabled him to make a skilful overtaking manoeuvre and gain a position. Together with the points for a P6 finish on Saturday, Stolz's total haul from the weekend was a useful 26. Lucas Auer (AUT) of Mercedes-AMG Team WINWARD was almost as successful: his P4 and P6 in rounds nine and ten of the 2023 campaign earned him 24 championship points. In the overall standings, Auer is now fifth, one place ahead of Maro Engel (GER) of Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-FILTER in sixth.

More about the #dtm at the Lausitzring: amg4.me/news_en

Fast Fact: The pit crews of the Mercedes-AMG Customer #racing teams were once again on top form at the Lausitzring. The fastest wheel change on Sunday was performed by Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-FILTER, with a standing time for Maro Engel's #48 Mercedes-AMG GT3 of 6.3 seconds. It was the third time this year that a Mercedes-AMG team worked fastest in the pits after the Sunday race at Oschersleben and the Saturday race at the Norisring, on both occasions in front of the Mercedes-AMG Team WINWARD garage.

Fun Fact: Engel was asked to drive an electric rally car on Wednesday at the invitation of the ADAC (German motoring association and organiser of the DTM). Together with three other contestants in the series, the Mercedes-AMG brand ambassador took part in the #dtm Gravel Challenge at the Massen Dirt Track, which is around 20 minutes away from the Lausitzring. In two teams of two, they had to complete a total of six laps and a tyre change at the halfway point. "It was great fun!" said Engel. "My navigator Kelvin van der Linde (RSA) didn't give me as much assistance as I might have liked, but he kept me well and truly motivated."

News snippets: Results, Facts and Social Media News

ADAC GT4 Germany: Ably assisted by his new co-driver, Marc de Fulgencio from Spain, Denis Bulatov (GER) won Sunday's race at the Lausitzring. The duo in the number 4 Mercedes-AMG GT4 of BCMC Motorsport powered by EastSide Motorsport secured victory in the one-hour race by a margin of 21 seconds. So even a subsequent 15-second penalty incurred for a glancing contact with an opponent was not enough to deprive them of their reward. Bulatov and de Fulgencio had already finished sixth on Saturday, so the points total for the weekend puts Bulatov in second place, just six points behind the leaders.

GT World Challenge Asia: Mercedes-AMG driver Anthony Liu Xu from China has become the new leader of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS, with only the season finale in Sepang still to be contested. Partnered by Mercedes-AMG Performance driver Daniel Juncadella (ESP), he won Saturday's race in Okayama. On Sunday, Juncadella and Xu in the #37 Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Craft Bamboo #racing were the main beneficiaries of a final phase marked by numerous retirements. In the last ten minutes they fought their way up from outside the Top Ten to fourth.

GT World Challenge America: Mercedes-AMG Customer #racing registered two class wins on the fifth race weekend of the 2023 GT World Challenge America at Road America in Elkhart Lake. On Saturday, Colin Braun and George Kurtz won the Pro-Am class, while Jonathan Branam and Paul Kiebler (all USA) prevailed in Saturday's race in the Am class. Both pairings were driving Mercedes-AMG GT3s. It was a similar story on Sunday, as the Mercedes-AMG duo of Jeff Burton and Corey Lewis (USA) were joined on the Pro-Am podium by Anthony Bartone (USA) and Adam Christodoulou (GBR).

GT America: The weekend went even better for the brand in the GT America powered by AWS, where George Kurtz in the number 4 Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Crowdstrike by Riley won both races ahead of fellow Mercedes-AMG driver Memo Gidley (USA; TKO Motorsports). But that wasn't all: in the second race on Sunday, Jason Daskalos (USA; CRP Racing) in third and Anthony Bartone (USA; RealTime Racing) in fourth made it 1-2-3-4 for Mercedes-AMG Customer #racing.

GT4 America: Mercedes-AMG Customer #racing celebrated another victory at Elkhart Lake in the Pirelli GT4 America as Michai Stephens (USA) and Jesse Webb (CAN) of Conquest Racing/JMF Motorsports won the first race of the weekend.

ESET Cup Series: One overall podium and four in class was the gratifying outcome of the ESET Cup Series race weekend at the Slovakia Ring, the penultimate fixture of the current campaign. Slovenia's Matej Kosič in the number 21 Mercedes-AMG GT4 fielded by LEMA #racing was the most successful of the Mercedes contingent, taking second place in his class in each of the two 25-minute sprint races. The overall podium went to Libor Milota (CZE) in the number 2 Mercedes-AMG GT3 of GT2 Motorsport for a P3 finish in the 60-minute race on Saturday evening.

#F1Campus: Our employees are the most important asset of our team. That makes it all the more important to provide them with facilities in which they can give their best. This video shows how we are building the #f1 campus of the future in Brackley.

Read more: mb4.me/fR5EhWGr

Watch video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=S10ZrM2CUkU

#JuniorDrivers: Their craziest races, funniest moments and favourite holiday destinations... our Junior drivers Frederik Vesti, Paul Aron and Andrea Kimi Antonelli introduce themselves.

Watch video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff5ZMV0nefw

#RaceResults: All the results from the most recent motorsport weekend

#StayTuned: Race events this coming weekend with Mercedes-AMG participation