In a reminder of the marque’s past dominance in motorsport, Mercedes-Benz SLS GT3s took the first three places in the recently-concluded 24 Hours of Dubai. The race was held at the 5.39 km long circuit that also is used for F1 Grands Prix. The first place in this race was also the maiden victory for the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 in a 24-hour race. Second and third places were taken by HEICO Motorsport SLS GT3s, which had Mercedes DTM driver Bernd Schneider playing a supporting role as part of Mercedes’ customer support program.

Out of a starting field of 72 cars, four SLS GT3s finished in the top ten. The FIA’s GT3 class has become one of the most popular racing classes in the world, and all the top marques such as Porsche, Ferrari and Aston Martin have made available GT3-spec customer cars for entry into this highly competitive series. Finding a dominant pack of SLS GT3s in the season opening race doesn’t bode well for the SLS GT3‘s competition and it will be interesting to see how the rest of of the year pans out for the FIA’s GT3 class.