Finger Lakes

Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams swept the front rows in both the GT and GTS classes in qualifying Saturday for this weekend's Pirelli World Challenge SprintX races at VIRginia International Raceway (VIR). CRP Racing and Lone Star Racing gave the Mercedes-AMG GT3 its first front-row sweep in North American competition after going one-two in GT-class qualifying. In GTS, Robinson Racing and Murillo Racing combined to give the Mercedes-AMG GT4 its first pole and first one-two qualifying result in the car's debut season of North American competition.

Daniel Morad won the GT pole in the No. 2 CRP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 after a final-lap flyer just edged the No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Mike Skeen by .088 of a second.

Skeen appeared to have his second-straight 2018 Pirelli World Challenge pole locked up with a lap time of 1:42.041 only to have Morad take the pole with a time of 1:41.953 on his seventh and final lap of the 20-minute qualifying session.

Morad and Skeen will lead the Pirelli World Challenge GT field to the green flag in today's first of two one-hour SprintX races, which is scheduled to start at 1:25 p.m. EDT and can be seen live at www.world-challenge.com.

The Mercedes-AMG GT3 is now a perfect two-for-two in Pirelli World Challenge SprintX qualifying this season. Skeen, who co-drives with Scott Heckert, won the pole in the Lone Star Racing No. 80 in last month's season-opening doubleheader at Circuit of The Americas (COTA).

Morad, co-driving this weekend with Fabian Schiller, is seeking a repeat victory at VIR after winning the Sunday round in last year's Pirelli World Challenge SprintX event in his debut in the No. 2 CRP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.

In GTS, veteran sports car driver Shane Lewis drove the No. 74 Robinson Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 to the class pole position with a top lap time of 1:53.396. He will be joined on the front row by Matt Fassnacht who qualified second with a lap time of 1:53.783 in just his second race in the No. 34 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4.

Lewis co-drives with Gar Robinson and Fassnacht shares the No. 34 with Christian Szymczak.

The front-row sweeps are the first for both the Mercedes-AMG GT3 in North America since Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing began competing in both the Pirelli World Challenge and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship series last year.

The Mercedes-AMG GT4 program was added to Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing in North America just this year in both Pirelli World Challenge GTS and the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge GS class. Today's pole and front- row sweep came in just the fifth North American weekend of competition for the Mercedes-AMG GT4 after two races in each of the series earlier in 2018.

Daniel Morad, Driver – No. 2 CRP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: "I am so happy with that lap. It is probably one of the best laps of my life that I have ever done. The Mercedes-AMG GT3 was just perfect today. We made a setup change just before qualifying based on the conditions. We knew the pace was going to be really high today, we took a risk and it really paid off. It's the best place in the house to start, and we will see if we can repeat last year."

Mike Skeen, Driver – No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: "We are pretty excited. The Lone Star Racing guys have been working very hard and we are thrilled to be able to put two Mercedes-AMG GT3 on the front row. We had a shot at the pole position, I think we could have pulled out another tenth-of-a-second or two, but we eventually got to the point where we didn't have enough fuel left to do any more laps. It was a little frustrating, but the car feels great and I think we have a good Mercedes-AMG GT3 to go into the race with."

Contacts:

Jochen Übler      Tel.: +49 (0) 7144 302-92 470  [email protected]
Robert Moran  Tel.: +1 770-705-2270           [email protected]

Further information from Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes-AMG and Mercedes-Benz USA is available on the Internet: www.media.daimler.com, www.mercedes-benz.com and www.mbusa.com.

For more information on AMG Customer Sports, please visit www.mercedes- amg.com/customerracing.