Raffaelle Marciello completed his Mercedes AMG factory career with a fine win at the 2023 FIA GT World Cup at Macau, for ‘back to back’ (interrupted only by a 3-year COVID-related absence for the event), the #48 Mercedes AMG Team Landgraf driver leading from lights to flag in a 16 lap race that saw plenty of pace but little overtaking in the top positions around the awesome Guia street course.
The opening corners saw a spirited battle between a fast-starting Sheldon van der Linde in the #32 WRT BMW and Eduardo Mortara for third – the Macau master Mortara in the #40 Absolute Racing Audi toughed it out to stay on the heels of the pair of Mercedes ahead, Marciello tracked by Maro Engel.
Daniel Serra meanwhile also had a fine start on his, and the Ferrari 296 GT3s debuts, the #51 car ahead of previous winner Augusto Farfus’s ROWE Racing BMW in a battle for fifth.
Just before the halfway point, there was trouble at tricky Turn 3 as first the #27 HubAuto Porsche of Kevin Estre got into the side of Earl Bamber’s #22 D2 Racing 911 GT3R, the Kiwi forced to cede the corner but reminding Estre of his presence off the apex with contact that removed the Frenchman’s rear diffuser!
Seconds later the #52 Harmony Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 of Weian Chen was in the tyre wall at the same point, the track partly blocked and the Safety Car scrambled, backing up the field.
At the restart with 7 laps to go there was disaster for Maro Engel, the Craft Bamboo AMG dropping right back with an issue as the field spread out to get by, Mortara up to second and Farfus grabbing a place from Serra for fourth.
Engel would stagger around to pit and retire, the reason initially unknown.
All the drama behind though had given Marciello a telling edge, Mortara now 3 seconds back from the leader.
5 laps to go and van der Linde too was in the pits from third, rejoining after what appeared to be a rear puncture.
Marciello’s 3-second gap from his rocket restart, aided by an effective mobile roadblock in the shape of the hobbled Engel, left him able to push to the finish untroubled from behind, Mortaro chipping away but the Audi racer unable to get close enough to truly challenge.
At the end of the penultimate lap Kevin Estre’s already damaged Porsche lost its remaining rear bodywork, possibly after a brush with the wall at the final turn, dropping him out of the top 10.
Marciello would come home with a 2.5-second advantage over Mortara with Farfus completing the podium, all three podium finishers prior winners at this race. At Macau, experience really matters!
Serra came home fourth as the first ‘rookie’ finisher with Dani Juncadella fifth, Laurens Vanthoor the first Porsche home in 6th.
Hongli Ye, from 16th on the grid, made the to 10 as the first Silver-ranked driver home in his R&B Racing Porsche.
Stefan Wendl – Mercedes AMG Motorsport: “It paid off that we invested in this event since 2016, including with our customer teams for the past three years, including with Maro (Engel) who invested 14 days staying in quarantine in the COVID years to come back here.”
Raffaelle Marciello: “In Macau, it is never easy because the mistake is always around the corner but it was a great race and I’m happy to finish my AMG life this way.
“Maro was always more or less one second back so the race was not under control then after the restart actually when I saw the big gap I thought I had made a mistake, perhaps I went too early because it was strange to gain all the momentum. It was a bit confusing but then they told me he (Maro) has an issue. So it was all good.”
