Mercedes continues German domination of Kyalami 9-Hour

It did not rain, there was an enthusiastic crowd, and world titles were clinched. That is how last Saturday’s Joburg Kyalami 9-Hour will be remembered.

The event, officially the final round of the 2021 Intercontinental GT Challenge, was postponed from November last year, in order to officially finalise that year’s Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ championships.

That was done, and a hugely appreciatively crowd was fully entertained.

The race was won by the Team AKKA ASP Mercedes-Benz-AMG GT, with drivers Raffaele Marciello, Jules Gounon and Timur Boguslavskiy leading from start to finish.

More importantly, Alessandro Pier Guidi, Come Ledogar and Miguel Molina took their AF Corse Francorchamps Ferrari 488 GT3 to second place. That saw Pier Guidi and Ledogar emerge as the 2021 Drivers’ Champions, having shared the same car in all of last year’s events.

Audi Sport came to Kyalami with the express intention to wrap up the 2021 Intercontinental Challenge Manufacturers’ title. To do so, they needed one works Audi R8 LMS GT3 finisher  in the top six places.

South African Kelvin van der Linde, Patrick Niederhauser and Markus Winkelhock duly obliged by taking third place overall, leading home the fellow R8 LMS of Christopher Haase, Mattia Drudy and Charles Weerts.

Fifth, taking the Silver Cup category, was the Audi R8 LMS of Lucas Legeret, Simon Gachet and Nicolas Baert. They overcame much stress, with a persistent restart issue in the pits testing the technicians to the full.

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Taking the Pro-Am class were Thierry Vermeulen, Michael Markussen and South African-born American Mark Patterson in their High Class Audi R8 LMS, followed to the flag by the troubled Sun Energy Mercedes-AMG GT of Mikael Grenier, Kenny Habul and Martin Konrad.

The first South African team across the line in eighth place was Stradale Motorsport, with its Lamborghini Huracan GT3 in the hands of Charl Arangies, Arnold Neveling and Michael van Rooyen. The effort netted them the National GT3 accolade.

Behind them Xolila Letlaka, Tschops Sipuka and Phillip Kekana made history by becoming the first all black crew to finish an international race in their Lamborghini Huracan GT3.

Finally, Marius Jackson, Mo Mia and Mikaeel Pitamber brought their MJR Racing Audi LMS GT4 to the tenth and final finishing place, taking the GT4 category win in the process.

Out of the 13 cars that took part, 10 finished with the early withdrawals being the Audi of Mikael Pitamber and the Lamborghini of Silvio Scribante. Both only completed the first hour as part of the national GT championship, which fell to the latter.

The race’s only retirement came on lap 119 when the second AF Corse Francorchamps Ferrari driven by Nicklaus Nielsen, Alessio Rovera and Antonio Fuoco pulled over at Barbeque bend with a damaged gearbox. The crew had been in contention for the overall championship, but their withdrawal handed the title to their teammates.

The quickest lap of the race went to the winning Mercedes, with Jules Gounon setting a time of one minute, 42.285 seconds, at an average speed of 159.89 km/h.

South Africa will house the final round of the 2022 Intercontinental Challenge, with the Joburg Kyalami 9-Hour to be held from 1 to 3 December.

The other races will be the Bathurst 12 Hour in Australia from 13 to 15 May, the 24 Hour of Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium from 28 to 31 July, and the Indianapolis 8 Hour in the United States, from 7 to 9 October.