20 Oct 2011 Mika Häkkinen to race at Zhuhai

The final round of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, the 6 hours Zhuhai welcomes former double Formula 1 World Champion Mika Häkkinen.

Photo : D.R. - AMG. Photo : Mika Häkkinen will drive a Mercedes SLS GT3 in his first endurance race at the 6 Hours of Zhuhai on the 13th of November.

The Finn will share the wheel of a Mercedes SLS GT3 in the colors of AMG China with Lance David Arnold and Cong Fu Cheng, the first Chinese driver to have competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2008. Double World Champion in 1998 and 1999, Mika Häkkinen has twenty wins to his credit in Formula 1, he left in late 2001 to run in DTM, before announcing his retirement from the sport in November 2007. Since then he has remained close to McLaren and Mercedes, for many public relations events.

Although Mika Hakkinen, now 43 years old, has never raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, two countrymen of his generation, born in 1966, have carved out an enviable record in endurance racing. Mika Salo, who was his opponent in the British Formula 3 Championship in 1990, and is currently one of the pillars of Ferrari GT, including the United States in the Risi Competizione team, took the LM GT2 title in the American Le Mans Series (2007) and two consecutive wins in this category at the 24 Hours of Le Mans (2008 and 2009). As for JJ Lehto, he has won outright twice in La Sarthe: in 1995 (McLaren F1 GTR, with Yannick Dalmas and Masanori Sekyia) and in 2005 (on Audi R8 with Marco Werner and Tom Kristensen).

In addition to continuing the battle between Peugeot and Audi prototypes, Mika Häkkinen, will come out of retirement for the occasion, and will be one of the great attractions of Zhuhai 6 hours, to be held on the 13th of November.

Note that a Mercedes SLS GT3 finished third at the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps this year.