Tales from the paddock: From one street circuit to the next

One week after the inaugural Formula E race around Jakarta city centre, Formula One returns to the high-speed street circuit in Baku

• This is what happened: Results and facts

• News from the Mercedes-AMG Motorsport teams

• Social media news: What’s new online?

This is what happened: Results and facts

• Formula E: Stoffel Vandoorne takes fifth place in the first ever Jakarta E-Prix
• GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup: Jules Gounon, Daniel Juncadella and Raffaele Marciello in P3 at Le Castellet
• GT4 European Series: Two podium finishes for the Mercedes-AMG GT4 at Circuit Paul Ricard
• Super Taikyu: Runner-up spot for the Mercedes-AMG GT3 at Fuji Speedway

News snippets

Baku, here we come: Next weekend, the Baku City Circuit in Azerbaijan will play host to F1 for the sixth time. There have been five different winners and pole setters in each of the five races held on the street circuit in Baku so far. Three of the five previous Grand Prix winners achieved the feat driving a Mercedes F1 car, namely Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. The same three drivers also booked one pole position each for the team in Baku. With a tally of three wins, Mercedes is the most successful F1 outfit on the 6,003 km street circuit, followed by Red Bull on two. In qualifying, the two non-Mercedes poles went to Ferrari. The Baku podium has featured at least one Mercedes works team driver on five occasions, and a driver in a Mercedes-powered car has finished in the top three nine times. The absolute lap record is held by Valtteri (1:40.495 minutes, 2019), while the fastest race lap so far (1:43.009 minutes, 2019) was clocked by Charles Leclerc.

Debut in Jakarta: The ABB FIA Formula E World Championship was contested in Indonesia for the first time last weekend. The new street circuit in the capital city of Jakarta turned out to be challenging for the Mercedes-EQ Formula E team. While Stoffel Vandoorne and the team successfully defended their leads in the two World Championships, Nyck de Vries was sorely out of luck. Vandoorne secured fifth place in a thrilling race, and had he not missed the activation zone for his attack mode, an even better result might have been on the cards. In the end, he crossed the finish line four seconds adrift of race winner Mitch Evans. Nyck was also looking good for a points finish until shortly before the end of the race, when he was involved in a no-fault collision with André Lotterer, for which the Porsche driver was handed a five-second penalty. Nyck sustained a puncture in the incident and had no choice but to retire his Silver Arrow 02 in the pits. The action continues on 2 July 2022 when Marrakech hosts the tenth round of the 2021/22 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.

Overall podium and two class wins in the Circuit Paul Ricard 1000Km: Mercedes-AMG Team AKKODIS ASP enjoyed yet another podium success in the second round of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup. After finishing second in the season opener at Imola, the high-performance French outfit and its line-up of Jules Gounon (FRA), Daniel Juncadella (ESP) and Raffaele Marciello (SUI) earned a podium for P3 in the Circuit Paul Ricard 1000Km after experiencing some highs and lows during the course of the six-hour race. After Marciello had moved up to first place in his stint from fourth on the grid, the crew of the number 88 Mercedes-AMG GT3 were then repeatedly frustrated by yellow flags coming out at just the wrong moment. First, an unfortunately timed safety car neutralized the gap that race leader Daniel Juncadella had pulled out, and shortly afterwards, despite setting the fastest lap of the race, the Spaniard also lost the lead during his pit stop. Later on, during the final stint, Gounon was the beneficiary of a puncture for an opponent and temporarily moved up to P2, but he was unable to hold on to the position following a safety car restart a few minutes before the end. Despite the setbacks, the result was still enough to see Mercedes-AMG Team AKKODIS ASP head to the standout 24-hour event of the season at Spa-Francorchamps occupying second place in the championship.

The Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing teams celebrated further successes in the individual class rankings. The #777 Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Al Manar Racing by HRT and the #87 of the AKKODIS ASP team delivered an impressive one-two finish in the Silver Cup. The number 20 GT of SPS automotive performance snatched the lead in the PRO-AM classification on the final lap to chalk up a second class win in this second race of the season.

As part of the supporting program at the Circuit Paul Ricard, there were two one-hour races in the GT4 European Series. Lluc Ibañez (ESP) and Enzo Joulié (FRA) sharing the cockpit of the number 15 NM Racing Team Mercedes-AMG GT4 finished third overall in both races. In the AM class, the number 88 sister car meanwhile secured victory on Saturday and a P3 in Sunday’s race. The number 87 GT4 fielded by AKKODIS ASP took the class win in the PRO-AM category in Race 1 and followed up with a P2 on Sunday.

Top results for Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing at the 24 Hours of Fuji: Martin Berry (AUS), Haruki Kurosawa, Shinichi Takagi and Daisuke Yamawaki (all JPN) in the #888 Grid Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 were rewarded for their efforts in the 24-hour race at the internationally famous Fuji Speedway with a podium appearance. At the end of the 758-lap distance, they crossed the line in P2 overall. In this third round of the 2022 Super Taikyu, the number 3 Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Endless Sports finished sixth overall and first in the ST-Q class for the fourth year in a row. Finishing one position behind was the number 500 GT4 fielded by the 5ZIGEN team, equivalent to first place in the ST-Z class.

Korthoff Motorsports finish fifth at Raceway at Belle Isle: In the sixth round of the 2022 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in Detroit, Team Korthoff Motorsports extended their excellent run of results to rack up further valuable championship points. Stevan McAleer (GBR) and Mike Skeen (USA) in the #32 Mercedes-AMG GT3 defended their lead in the team standings with a P5 in the 100-minute race. McAleer also remains top in the GTD drivers’ championship ahead of the next round at Watkins Glen on 26th June.

Nine more class wins in three different European GT series: The Nova Race pairing of Filippo Bencivenni and Fulvio Ferri (both ITA) celebrated two class wins in the third round of the 2022 Campionato Italiano GT series at Misano World Circuit. Driving the number 228 Mercedes-AMG GT4, they took first place in the GT4 PRO-AM class in both of the two 50-minute races. Emidio Pesce (ITA) and Jop Rappange (NED) in the #44 Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Antonelli MotorSport were also winners in the PRO-AM classification of the GT3 category.

The second round of the 2022 ESET Cup Series was contested at the Red Bull Ring near Spielberg last weekend. In Saturday’s one-hour race, the LEMA Racing duo of Luca Panizzi (ITA) and Predrag Šainović (SLO) in the number 99 Mercedes-AMG secured victory in the GT4 class. Šainović driving solo reprized this result in the 25-minute race on Sunday.

Also at the Red Bull Ring, the Breakell Racing team took three class wins on their debut with the Mercedes-AMG GT4. The number 201 car came first in its classification in all three P9 Challenge races.

social media news

#MyJobInF1: In the latest episode of our ‘My Job in F1’ series, we introduce our Machine Shop Manager, Rob, who manages and coordinates the machining, fabrication and inspection areas of the team. Thousands of metal parts are produced in our machine shop every year, and they need to be of the highest possible quality while maintaining the shortest possible lead time.

Watch video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEP0xOKXUDo

#TheONEandOnly: It started with an idea, a dream of bringing F1 technology to the public highway. That dream is about to become reality – the ONE and only Mercedes-AMG ONE.

Watch video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmuBdLvUVr0

#F1RaceDebrief: Before heading off to Baku for the next race, we take a look at the key issues arising from the Monaco Grand Prix. Andrew Shovlin answers fans’ questions about the race in the Principality.

Watch video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAkX1wk84XI